Dark Haven
by Saiyaness28
Summary: Stella is being stalked by a vampire. After months of sinister threats, he's struck. She's been taken. Now her survival rests in the hands of another vampire, Wild, an agent of the Vampire Victim Protection Agency. Please leave a review if you want more!
1. Chapter 1

Dark Haven

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Chapter 1: That Twisted Bed Time Prayer

"_Now I lay you down to sleep. Pray the lord your soul to keep. If you should die before you wake, pray the lord your soul to take." _Whispered the chilling voice. The twisted children's prayer was then followed by a wicked cackle. Then …the line went dead.

I flipped my cell phone closed and stared at it in my palm. That was the seventh time he'd called me in the past three days. The creep.

It all began with an email seven months ago. It had read the same strange thing. He always recited that old prayer my parents taught me when I was just a toddler, except he made a few minor creepy changes, transforming the bed time prayer into a threat. After the emails, the letters started, then the phone calls began. He never said anything more than those same few sentences. The sick freak. What did he want from me?

Lately, I've been getting this strange feeling that he's been watching me for far longer than I had originally thought. The emails started right after my dad left for his second tour of duty in Iraq. He'd likely been watching me well before that, just waiting for the right opportunity to start tormenting me. My dad was a cop and a marine. It made sense for him to wait until he was out of the picture. Now, without my warrior dad to protect me, I was helpless. Sure I could call the cops on him, but I really didn't want to worry my mom. With her two jobs, my brother failing math, and my dad off at war, she had enough to worry about.

"Matthew get up!" I heard my mom yell from across the hall.

Great. Why did Matt have to be so difficult in the morning? Mom always woke me up when she had to yell at him like that. I threw off my colorful quilt and climbed out of bed. "I'll get him up, Mom." I called out to her, staggering across the hall to my brother's room.

I entered "the pit" carefully. We called it that because every piece of carpet was covered with action figures and junk. You could barely walk in his room and if you ever lost anything in there, you'd never find it again. I grabbed his _Spiderman _comforter and yanked it off of him.

"Stella!" He groaned.

"It's your own fault for goofing off in class." I reminded him as I grabbed his feet and pulled him clear off of the bed. He landed on the floor with the snap, crackle, and pop of crushed action figures.

"Ow!" He cried. "That hurt!" He whined.

I picked up one of his _Star Wars_ light sabers and started whacking him on the head with it. "Get ready for school, Gremlin." I demanded as I whacked him all the way to the door.

After a quick breakfast of _Coco Puffs, _mom and Gremlin left for their day, mom to the first of her two jobs as a cashier at the local Good Food grocery store and Matthew to summer school. I was left home alone.

I put on some shorts and an old t-shirt, brushed my unruly dark brown hair, (curly hair can be beast to tame) and brushed my teeth. Then I loaded the dishwasher and straitened up the kitchen. When I was finally finished, I decided to go to town for a while. I needed a new sketchbook and some batteries for my XBOX controllers.

I grabbed my purse and jumped into my green Cavalier. The trip to town only took about five minutes. We live in the perfectly small town of Bloom. We have a Dollar Store, a McDonalds, a movie rental store, a laundry mat, a grocery store, and a Chinese take out place. That's it. I pulled up at the Dollar Store and went inside. I made a b line for the school supply isle and grabbed a sketchbook, then I went back up front, grabbed a pack of batteries and got in the check out line. I made my purchases and went back to my car. As I was unlocking the driver's side door, I had the eerie feeling that someone was watching me. My hazel eyes lifted to fixate upon a man on the other side of the parking lot. Aviator styled sunglasses hid his eyes. He was wearing a hooded sweat shirt, with the hood drawn over his head. In the middle of June? The longer I stared at him, the more I shook. Something wasn't right about this guy. He opened his mouth and began to sing. I realized then what it was that scared me so much about him.

"Now I lay you down to sleep, pray the lord your soul to keep. If you should die before you wake, pray the lord your soul to take." He sang, mockingly. Beneath the shadow of his hood, I could see that he wore a smile on his face.

My heart racing wildly, I climbed into my car and sped off as fast as was legally aloud.

When I got home I locked all the doors and windows, cut off all the lights and appliances, and hid in my room. I huddled in my bed, curled up in the fetal position with the covers pulled over my head. My breath came out in wild gasps as I fought to slow my heart rate. I couldn't believe it. I'd actually _seen _him! I jumped at the sound of my ring tone. I grabbed my cell from where it rested on my night stand and flipped it open. "H-hello?" I stuttered.

The voice on the other end was quiet for a moment. All I could hear was ragged, excited breathing, then…he spoke. "Hi, Stella." He greeted with a little chuckle. "You looked so pretty today in those little shorts." He laughed harder.

My eyes bugged out of my head and the hand that held my phone to my ear began to tremble.

"Why'd you leave so suddenly? Didn't you like my singing?" He asked.

"Why are you doing this?" I cried. "What do you _want _from me?"

The voice stalled; then in a much deeper voice he said, "Your blood."

I screamed and dropped the phone on the floor.

That night, I paced around my room, racking my brain on what to do. I knew that reporting him was the smart thing to do, but…I don't know…something held me back. It could all be a joke, just a really sick joke, right? I hoped it was anyway.

I sat at the edge of my mattress and picked up the framed family photo from the night stand beside me. I never really liked this picture. It was taken the night before his first deployment. We were all smiling, with our arms around dad. We looked happy, but it was lie. Those smiles were fake. Inside, we were all scared out of our minds. I traced the outline of his face with a finger tip. "Dad…I really wish you were here right now." I cried,. Tears dripped from my eyes and streaked across the glass of the picture frame.

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Author's Note: So how was it? Want more? Well...you'll just have to leave a review to let me know.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Man in the Pool

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"Wow, mom, these are really good." I complimented, as I savored the deliciousness of my chocolate chip pancakes.

"I know!" She giggled. "I'm such a kick ass chef."

We both laughed as we stabbed our forks into a another morsel.

"Hey! Why didn't you guys tell me you had chocolate chip pancakes!" Matt whined when he finally appeared in the kitchen. "Where's mine?"

"We ate them all." Mom and I laughed wickedly.

"W-what?" Matt whimpered, his heart shattering to pieces. Tears began to glisten in his brown eyes.

"God, Gremlin, don't cry!" I groaned, rolling my eyes at my silly little brother. "We hid a couple in the microwave."

"Yes!" Matt yelled, bounding halfway across the kitchen to his beloved pancakes.

After breakfast, mom and Matt left. I did my usual routine. I cleaned up the kitchen, loaded the dishwasher, deleted the twenty new e-mails from my stalker, watched TV , there was absolutely nothing on so I quickly got bored with that. I looked out of one of the living room windows at the pool. "It's still kind of early, but I think it's warm enough." I thought aloud. I went and put on my turquoise one piece bathing suit. I couldn't find my skull and crossbones bikini. Ah man! That one was my favorite! I searched for it for about half an hour before giving up. I pulled my unruly hair into a ponytail. I grabbed the novel I was working on and my favorite old _Little Mermaid _towel, and slipped on a pair of flip flops. Then I ran out to the pool.

I laid out in one of our white pool chairs, reading my book. It was one of those cheesy teen romance novels. They're incredibly lame, but for some reason I like them. I was really enjoying the hot sensation of the sun on my skin and the gentle breeze that lightly caressed my cheek and blew a few of my loose curls around my face. Suddenly, my peaceful mood was disturbed by my ring tone. I looked over at the chair next to me, where I had all my stuff piled. There, lying on my towel was my cell phone. My eyes narrowed in confusion as I looked at it. I didn't remember bringing it with me. I picked it up and hesitantly answered. To my relief, it was just my friend, Julie.

"Hey!" She greeted in her high pitched voice.

"Hi Julie. How are you?" I asked, relaxing a little.

"What're you up to?" She asked.

"Just laying out by the pool." I answered.

"Cool! Do you mind if I join you?"

"Not at all." I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"Awesome! I'll be there in like two minutes!" She squealed and hung up.

Always fashionably late, Julie arrived twenty minutes later. Her boyfriend, Kyle, dropped her off in his brand new red mustang. I hadn't seen her since we graduated from High School a couple of weeks back. We weren't as close as we once were, but that had nothing to do with us growing up. We used to like the same stuff, we liked watching horror flicks and detested chick flicks. We were both in the art club since our freshman year of high school, we liked to poke fun at the popular girls, we even used to stay at each other's houses every single weekend. However, that had all changed when she started dating back in her junior year. Suddenly she became a boy obsessed, too into her looks, chain smoking, alcoholic cheerleader. Exactly the kind of person I hated most, but out of the hope that she'd one day wake up and go back to her old self, I stuck by her. Although, we didn't hang out nearly as often. I didn't want to be involved with some of the things she'd gotten herself mixed up in.

She came to the pool in a tiny hot pink string bikini and a pair of short shorts with the words "Daddy's Girl" written across the butt. She took off her shorts and sat in the chair next to me. She started jabbering about Kyle as she rubbed sun tan lotion all over herself. "So I've been thinking about dumping Kyle. I've been seeing Travis for a couple of months now and Kyle just can't get the blood pumping anymore. You know what I mean?" She looked at me and laughed. "Oh yea, you wouldn't would you."

She pulled her now bleach blond hair up in a ponytail and laid back in her chair. After a few minutes, she pulled a cigarette from her purse and lit up. I started chocking on the putrid smoke billowing from her lips. "Put that out!" I yelled, still hacking up my lungs.

"What? You want one?" She laughed, mockingly.

I snatched the cigarette from her and snubbed it out on the deck.

"Hey!" She whined.

"I've told you before not to smoke here. I can't stand that smell."

"Whatever." She chuckled, rolling her blue eyes.

"You know you really shouldn't smoke. Those things will kill you."

"Come on! You're starting to sound like me mom!" She groaned.

I shook my head and looked away from her, biting my lip to keep from chewing her out.

"You seriously need to get laid, Stella." She said, taking a flask from her purse. She unscrewed and top and took a swig.

The strong scent of Vodka, smacked me in the face. "Oh my god! I hissed, jumping to my feet. I grabbed her stuff and shoved them at her. "Get out!" I shouted.

"What is your problem?!" She huffed.

"Take your drunk ass somewhere else, Julie!" I picked up her shorts and threw them at her.

"Fine!" She retorted. She tossed her hair and staggered away.

I stared after her for a moment, my heart racing and my hands clenched into fists at my sides. My whole body burned with rage and angry tears stung my eyes. How did my friend get so screwed up?

The heat was making my tear stained cheeks burn so I took a deep breath and did a cannon ball into the pool. Beneath the surface, I opened my eyes and looked around. That's when I saw him, the dead guy in my pool.

He was floating around the bottom, his shoulder length brown hair waved gracefully in the water around his head. He was wearing dark washed jeans, a gray t-shirt and a pair of boots. A silver cross floated at his chest. Where had he come from? Did he fall in? Who was he? I wondered all at once. My brain was working over time trying to make sense of what I was seeing. As I stared in horror at the drowned corpse, his eyes popped open. His _red_ eyes!

I screamed, without thinking where I was and I gagged on water. The corpse's lips twisted into a fanged smile. I broke for the surface. I kicked my legs as fast as I could, my arms reaching for the glimmer of sunlight above. Just as my arm was out of the water, I felt something grab my leg. I looked down to see the corpse, this red eyed devil holding me there beneath the water, his mouth was open in laughter, his hair writhed as if it were alive. I reached for the sun, but it was useless. The devil was too strong for me. Inch by deadly inch he pulled me further into the underworld. Slowly, the edges of my vision began to blur and darken. My lungs ached for breath. And all I could hear was the thudding of my dieing heart. B-bump…b-bump….b-bump………Silence.

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**Author's Note:** What do you think of it so far? Is there something that you think I should change about it? Do you have any questions? Do you just want someone to talk to? Leave a review! Or if you want you can send me a private e-mail! I'd love to hear from you!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: I'm Freezing

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**Wild:**

I pulled up beside a police cruiser, right outside a run down trailer in one of the county's many trailer parks. I put on my shades and got out of my car. I made my way through the crowd of police officers, detectives and CSI. An officer with a big round belly staggered out of the trailer in question and promptly spewed his lunch all over the sun dried grass.

I found my partner, Skulls, there waiting for me by the yellow tape barrier. His bald head shined brightly in the hot Texas sun. I pulled my coat tighter around me, pulling up the collar like it was twenty degrees in the dead of winter instead of upwards of ninety.

"About time you showed up." Skulls greeted, crossing his powerful arms over his barrel chest.

"Sorry. I still have a nasty hang over from last night." I explained. My head was still spinning. "So fill me in on what's going on."

"Vamp attack. The whole Wiliker family's been slaughtered. There's one survivor, the youngest son, Roger." Skulls said, bringing his voice down to a barely detectable whisper so that we would not be over heard by the badges.

"I'd like to take a look." I said.

Skulls and I passed under the yellow tape and entered the old trailer. I instantly understood why the cops were getting sick. The smell of blood and rotting flesh slammed into my face. My stomach began to growl. God I was hungry. Skulls stood by the door as I made my way around the house. Mr. Wiliker was lying on the floor beside his recliner. His throat was ripped open from ear to ear. I found Mrs. Wiliker in the kitchen. She was in much the same condition, except her head had been completely removed. At the back of the trailer I found two little girls and a two year old boy. I won't go into details on what they looked like. Even a guy like me, gets teary eyed at the sight of dead children. The faces of the cops around me were solemn. They all looked sick and I had little doubt that they'd have to scrub extra hard tonight to get the stench of death off their skin. This was the most unnerving part of my job. The horrors that I saw every day had little effect on me. I shrugged it off, no matter how gruesome the sight. Even the deaths of children. It was on days like this that I realized just how used to the stench of death I'd become. For most people, the smell of death turns their stomachs, makes them sick. It just makes me hungry. It's like the smell of roasted chicken to a starving man. You want to know why? Well…let's just say the killer and I aren't that different.

"Where's the boy?" I asked the cop next to me.

"With the ambulance. We wanted to make sure he was okay." He answered, patting his forehead with a napkin. He gave me a strange look. "Aren't you hot?" He asked, inquiring as to why I was all bundled up.

"No. I'm freezing." I said and went outside to the paramedics.

Two paramedics, a man and a woman, were checking the boy over for wounds. The boy, maybe ten years old, was absolutely drenched in blood. His face was drawn and pale and he was shaking. I looked into the boy's eyes and I learned all that I needed to. They were oddly dark and they shifted erratically. I was all too familiar with the signs. This boy, this child, was our murderer. The rogue vampire we'd been sent to find.

"Can you give me a moment with Roger here?" I asked the paramedics.

"Who are you?" The man asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

I flashed him my badge. " Agent Adam Wilder with the V.V.P.A. I'm here investigating the killings."

"The V.V.P.A? I've never heard of it." Said the woman, giving me the eye as well.

" You wouldn't. We work for the government. Our work is strictly classified." I slipped off my sunglasses and looked deeply into her dark eyes. "Now please leave so I can talk to this witness." I said.

As expected, her eyes glassed over with a strange haze. "Yes sir." She said. She took the man by the arm. "Come on Frank, let's let the man work." She said, dreamily. Reluctantly, the man allowed himself to be dragged off. I put my shades back on and turned my attention back to the boy.

"Hello, Roger." I greeted the child.

He looked at me and I saw him tense up. Unsurprisingly, he knew exactly what I was. Our kind can recognize each other just by scent. "How long have you been like this?" I asked him.

He didn't say anything. He just looked up at me with the terrified eyes of a normal, innocent child. "It's alright. I won't hurt you. I'm not like the one that changed you." I said.

"I-I didn't mean to. I-I was just…so hungry." He whimpered, bloody tears dripping down his face.

I put my hand on his shoulder. "I know, son. I know. It's okay." I kneeled down in front of him and took out my wallet. "You know, I have a daughter. Her name's Lillian." I took out my only photo of my little girl and showed it to him. "She's five there. She's much older than you now." I said, soothingly.

"This picture's really old." He pointed out, wiping his nose on his sleeve.

"I'm really old, myself and I've been a vampire for most of my life. I can help you." I said.

He looked at me questioningly, "Really? How? Can you make the pain stop?"

"No, but I can take you to a place where they'll teach you to control yourself, so that something like this doesn't happen again. Will you go with me?"

He looked at me for a moment, studying me. Finally he nodded.

"Good boy." I said with a smile and gave him a pat on the back.

I took Roger back to my car, where Skulls was waiting impatiently. I put Roger in the back seat and closed the door.

"Christ!" Growled Skulls. "Who turns a kid?"

"I don't know. But I'm going to find out. Maybe he'll be able to tell me something later, once the turning is complete. He's still in the shift phase." I said, running my hand through my hair.

"Whoever it is needs to fry." Skulls hissed.

I agreed completely. Turning a child was especially cruel. When you're turned, you essentially die, so you stay physically the same as you were when it happened. For kids it means they'll never grow up. He may become more intelligent, act more like a man would, but physically he'll always be a kid. Child vampires tend to go crazy after the first half century or so if left on their own.

"I'm going back to head quarters to drop him off with Candy. Meet me at _Starbucks_ in an hour. I could really use a cup of joe, right about now." I sighed.

Skulls chuckled loudly. "Why do you drink that stuff, man. It's not like it does you any good."

"I like the taste." I said and climbed behind the wheel.

"Whatever. See you then, Wild." Skulls laughed, backing away from the car.

We waved at each other as I sped away.

**Stella:**

"Now I lay you down to sleep, pray the lord your soul to keep. If you should die before you wake, pray the lord your soul to take." Whispered a wicked voice.

I blinked my eyes open. The world around my swirled at first, then slowly settled back to normal. The room I found myself in was very dark. The floor at my feet was very dirty. I looked down at my feet and I suddenly realized that I was dangling. My arms were suspended above me, secured with heavy chains wrapped around my wrists. "Oh God!" I cried, tugging at the chains with all my might. "Help!" Help me!" I screamed.

"That won't do you any good." said that same horrible voice. My eyes darted over to a rocking chair in the corner. There the man from the pool sat, rocking slowly back and forth. He held a hunting knife in one hand. An evil smile was plastered on his face. His red eyes beamed at me through the darkness.

"Please, just let me go." I begged. "I swear I won't tell anyone about this."

"Now why would I do something like that, after I've gone through all the trouble of catching you, little rabbit." He cackled.

He got up from his chair and walked up to me, still gripping his knife.

"Please." I cried. "Let me go home."

He took my face in his hands. "You are home, sweet heart." He said darkly. He tilted my head to the side and began to sniff at my neck. His knife grazed my cheek. I squeezed my eyes shut, preparing to feel the sharp pain as he slit my throat. "I've waited a long time for this." He breathed, excitedly. "I can't wait to taste your blood."

He took his knife and made a shallow cut on my neck. I yelped at the pain. He began to lap at the wound. I could hardly make sense of what he was doing. My mind was racing at a thousand miles a minute. I heard him let out a hiss and my eyes shifted to look at him out of the corner of my eye. He was grimacing, his red eyes now flaring viciously, his strangely sharp canines glimmering in the dim light. In one swift motion he had my neck in his jaws. I let out a blood curdling scream at the horrible pain as his sharp teeth pierced my flesh. I fought him at first, my legs kicking with all their might, trying to get him to set me free. I could feel a raging heat coursing through me. I felt like I was on fire. But as he drank more and more blood, I weakened. The fire was replaced by ice. My body felt frozen. I went limp, except for the shivers that racked my frame. Just when I could take no more, he stopped drinking and released me from his jaws. He stepped back and smiled at me. My blood was smeared all around his mouth and dripped from his chin.

"I was right to wait. A rich blood like yours, needs time to ripen." He huffed, breathing wildly. He took my face in his hand again and kissed my mouth roughly. "You taste even better than I dreamed." He breathed against my mouth.

He released me then and walked towards a ladder at the other side of the room. At the ladder, he looked back at me and wiped my blood off his mouth with his arm. "Sweet dreams, Stella, love." He laughed and a grin stretched across his face. "I'll see you at breakfast."

He climbed up the ladder and disappeared. Moments latter what little lighting I had went out and I was left in a world of endless darkness. That night, I hung by my chain and wept, my body quivering against the cold that surrounded me and writhed within me.

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Author's Note: Wow! That was a fun chapter. I really enjoyed Wild's part. Can you tell I watch way too much crime shows? All of the vampires in this story go by their nicknames. It's pretty obvious why Wild is called that. Skulls is one of my fav characters. The origin of his nickname will be revealed later on. He's very cool though. The vampires can also eat and drink other things besides blood. It just doesn't nurish them. They mainly do it for fun. Would you like to see more of Roger later? I'm debating on whether or not I should keep him around or not. So how am I doing so far? Want more? Remember if you want the story to continue you have to review! The more reviews I get, the quicker the updates! 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Vampire's Captive

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**Wild:**

"Candy!" I called as I entered V.V.P.A Headquarters. I led Roger into the infirmary. There I found the eerily beautiful doctor. She was staring sadly down at the young man in one of the beds. Silently, she drew the bed sheet over his face.

"What's wrong with him?" asked Roger, innocently. His shifting black eyes gazing back up at me. "Is he dead?"

I took off my shades and placed them in my coat pocket. "Yea." I replied, still studying the tender way Candy treated the dead man.

Candy straitened and turned to look at us. "What's this?" She asked, tucking a stray blonde hair behind her ear.

"This is Roger. He's a new fledgling I picked up." I answered, patting the young boy on the shoulder, reassuringly.

Candy nodded. "I see. Put him in that bed over there and I'll get him some fluids in a moment. For now I have to get Owen here to the morgue."

As I settled Roger into the bed, I watched the assistants work out of the corner of my eye. They placed Owen into a body bag and wheeled him out on a gurney. All the while, Candy stood there watching them, her eyes holding an unsurpassable sadness. Strange. Usually she didn't get so attached.

When they'd left, I walked over to her. "What's wrong?" I asked, stuffing my hands in my pockets.

Candy crossed her arms and looked down at her shoes, refusing to meet my gaze. "I knew him." She squeaked.

"Oh…was he an old boyfriend or something?" I asked.

She bit her lip and wiped at her cheeks, trying to hide the fact that she was on the verge of breaking down. "No…he was my son."

"What?" I gasped, hardly believing what I was hearing. "I didn't know you had any kids."

"I had one, back in high school. I put him up for adoption." She croaked, a tear gently trailed down her cheek. "The first time I've seen him in thirty years and he dies right in front of me."

"Do they know who attacked him?" I asked, my red eyes flaring.

"He was one of Icy's cases. You'd have to ask her."

"Great." I sighed. If there was one thing I hated in this world, it was dealing with the ice queen.

"Excuse me." She said as she brushed past me. She quickly went to Roger and hooked him up to an IV. Work, that's how everyone deals with grief around here.

"I'm going to go talk with Icy. Keep me posted on Roger's condition." I said.

"Will do." Candy muttered.

I left the infirmary and made my way to Icy's office. She was sitting, cross legged at her computer, looking as frigid as ever in her form fitting, navy skirt and blazer.

"Icy." I greeted.

She glanced up at me. "Wild." She greeted.

"Owen is dead." I said.

"I am aware. I knew he wouldn't make it when I saw him at the scene. The vampire who attacked him had nearly sucked him dry."

I shrugged off that cold remark. "Did you know that he was Candy's son?"

"Yes. Dragon told me." She said, the pitch of her voice holding no emotion.

"Dragon? He did this?" I asked.

"Yes."

I knew that name well. He was Candy's ex-husband. He's also the one who turned her in the first place. He was one of the big baddies nowadays. The boss of one of the largest covens of rogue vampires. He was still pretty bitter about their break up, so he tormented Candy at every opportunity. I knew he was bad news, but I never thought he's sink this low.

I swallowed the bitter taste that had formed in my mouth. I don't care if you're a human or a bloody vampire. No body should be able hurt someone you were supposed to love that badly.

"Did you catch him?" I asked, crossing my fingers.

"No. He got away, like usual. Those Teleporters are tricky devils."

"Damn. Well, thanks for not telling, Candy. It would kill her if she knew." I said, ignoring the protests of my pride.

Icy smiled at me as she bit at the end of her pen. "I was planning to. I just hadn't gotten around to it."

I rolled my eyes at her. Of course. "I figured that much. Being nice isn't your style." I turned to leave.

"Going out?" asked Icy.

"Yea." I replied.

"You're going to _Starbucks _aren't you?" She chuckled.

"I need something to warm my bones." I said as I took my shades back out and put them back into place. The number one rule for vampires when they go out in public: hide the red eyes.

"Bring me back a hot chocolate. I could use a warming up, myself." She requested, her red painted lips curving ever slightly into her signature sexy smirk.

I flashed her my own devilish smirk, the very one she couldn't stand. "I don't think that's a good idea, Icy. You might melt."

She threw her pen at me and it knocked me in the head. "Ow!" I yelped, although it really didn't hurt at all.

"Get out of here, you asshole!" She hissed.

"Alright. Alright. I'll get you your damn hot chocolate." I chuckled and swiftly retreated into the hall. One must never over stay your welcome with the ice queen.

**Stella:**

Make him stop. Please, god make him stop. That's all I could think as he gulped down my blood. They say your life flashes before your eyes right before you die. That hasn't happened yet. I only think about the pain. That horrible burn and the mind numbing cold that sweeps through me one after the other each time he feeds off of me. I've been here for three days…I think. The days are blending together, so I'm not sure. I can't feel my arms anymore. I've been hanging in this position ever since I woke up here. I'm a little worried, but in a way I'm glad I can't feel them.

Finally full, my captor, The Vampire, as I've been calling him - for lack of an actual name - released my throat and backed away, so he could watch me hang there, limp and lifeless. I couldn't pick up my head anymore, it just rolled from side to side. My eyes couldn't focus.

He pat the side of my face, harshly. It was really more of a slap than a pat. "Wake up. If you fall asleep, now you might not wake up." He chuckled.

"P-please. I-I need food." I stuttered. I hadn't eaten anything since my pancakes the day he took me.

"Oh that's right. Little rabbits need to eat, don't they?" He laughed wickedly. He went over to one of the three coolers he had in the basement and took out the body of a dog he'd killed. He took it over to a table where he had a set of butcher knives laid out and chopped off the dogs head. He then brought the head over and presented it to me. He held it up to my face and flashed me a smile. "Here you are my dear. This is all for you."

I turned my head abruptly and vomited all over the floor.

"Now look what you've done! Now you'll smell like vomit. That's not very appetizing, love." My captor chuckled.

He threw the head to the side and took a key from his pocket. "Tell you what. I'll let you get cleaned up while I find you something better suited for your weak human stomach. I wanted to change you out of that bathing suit anyway." He unlocked the chains that held my wrists and I fell limply into his awaiting arms. I let out a shrill scream as the feeling rushed back to my arms and bombarded my senses. The Vampire only laughed at my pain.

He carried me on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes as he climbed the ladder to the top floor. He went to his bedroom first and took a red silk nighty from his closet.

In the bathroom, he sat me down on the toilet and handed me the silky gown. "Now you get all primped up for me now and I'll have a special treat for you when you're finished." He smiled. The moisture on his fangs glittered in the light. Then he left, closing the door behind himself.

Getting my bathing suit off was quite the hassle. My arms hurt too much to lift them very high. I turned on the warm water and got inside. I slumped to the bottom of the shower. I drew my knees up to my chest and just let the water rain down on me. I stared at the water around me as it slowly turned red with my blood. I washed my hair and scrubbed the dirt and crusted blood off my skin. I was amazed by how quickly his bite marks healed. The one from that morning had already scabbed over. I shivered as I counted the scars. He never bit the same place twice, so I literally had teeth marks from head to toe. I got to 30, but I remembered several more on my back, which I couldn't see.

When I was clean again, I got out and put on the red silk night gown. It was pretty short. It only covered me to mid thigh. I really wished I had some form of underwear. Looking around, I noticed a bikini hanging on the towel rack. I picked it up and looked at it. I recognized it immediately. It was the Pirate bikini I had "lost". So he'd stolen it. He _had_ been in my house. I swallowed the bile that had risen in my throat at the thought that he may have been looming over me as I slept.

I shook away the image and quickly slipped on the bottom of the bikini. I looked around the bathroom until I found a comb and ran it through my tangled mane. I looked like I'd walked through all nine levels of hell and back. The bite marks were clearly visible. They had all almost closed up, but they where all encircled with nasty bluish black bruises. I had blotches all over, especially in his favorite areas, like my neck, shoulders and breasts. As I studied my disastrous appearance, my eyes were drawn to something on the wall above the toilet. There was a small window.

Hesitantly, on shaky legs, I tiptoed towards the window. I climbed up on the toilet and tugged up on the window. It lifted with a sharp edged creak. The outside air slapped against my face, clearing my nostrils of the decaying scent of old blood and rotting flesh that drenched The Vampire's house. Freedom!

I poked my head thorough and looked down. It wasn't but a six foot drop to the ground below. I could make that. I crawled out of the window and sat upon the window sill, preparing to jump down. Just as I was about to push off, I heard a loud bang. The door being thrown open and hitting the opposite wall. My head whipped around to meet the truly pissed face of my captor standing in the doorway.

"You little bitch!" The Vampire Hissed. He evaporated into a black mist and rematerialized right behind me. He snatched me by the hair and dragged me by it, kicking and screaming, back down into the "Meat Room".

"You think you can just leave?" The pupils of his unnatural red eyes now narrowed to slits, like cat eyes. "You going to leave me?! Huh!" He screamed like a mad man.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" I cried, pleading with him for mercy. This was it. I was going to die.

He dragged me back to the chains and locked them back into place around my wrists. "Sorry isn't going to cut it, love!" He hissed in my face. He grabbed a hold of my legs and wrapped them around his waist. "I'll just have to make sure that you _can't_ get away."

With speed no human could posses, he jerked his body beyond the length of the chains. I heard a sickening pop as my arms dislocated from my shoulders. I let out a strange, almost feral scream that I never knew a person could make. Pain radiated through my entire body.

He released my legs and my body swung from horizontal into it's natural hanging position. With all my weight pulling down on my dislocated arms, the pain was unimaginable. The Vampire laughed at my pain, just like he always did. What had I done to deserve this torture?

"Why? Why do you hate me so much?" I asked in moan.

He stroked my cheek, in a eerily loving way. "I don't hate you, Stella. I do this because I love you." He kissed my lips gently. When he ended the kiss he looked deeply into my eyes. Those crimson orbs seemed to study my very soul. "You're mine, Stella. I will never let you leave me. Try something like this again, and next time it will be your legs." He said then sank his teeth into my thigh. One good thing came from this. The freezing cold that fallowed the slow burn when he fed off me, numbed the rolling pain from my mangled arms.

When he was done, he left me alone in the darkness once more. I came to the conclusion that night, as I drifted in and out of consciousness, that I was going to die here.

* * *

Wow that was brutal! It made me cringe just writing about it. My mom dislocated one of her shoulder a few years back. I'm sure she'd run screaming from the room if she read this. XD

In the next chapter we'll finally have a name for the the captor.

But if you want to find out what it is, you'll have to leave a review. Remember, I'll only continue this story as long as it is encouraged.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: A New Case

**Wild:**

"So that guy that Icy brought in last night was Candy's son?" Skulls asked, his surprise evident in his voice.

"Yea. I'm surprised you didn't know. You and Candy have been dating for almost three years now." I said, washing down my lemon cream filled doughnut with my coffee. Ah the joys of being undead. You can eat all you want and never gain a pound. If the public knew of our existence we'd have thousands, if not millions, lined up at our doorsteps begging to be turned.

"She never mentioned anything about having a kid." Skulls grumbled, his already deep voice dropping an octave in anger.

I watched his hand curl into a tight fist. I knew he was pissed and hurt by this new development. You think you know some people, then they surprise you. Candy is an especially…complicated case. I've known her for over thirty years and still I know very little about her past.

"Don't let it get to you. There's still some things I don't know about her." I said, trying my best to comfort my friend.

Skulls shook his head, his jaw clenching, his eyes narrowing behind his dark tented sun glasses. "Yea well, you're not the one who lies next to her every night." He growled bitterly.

I jumped slightly at the sound of my beeper buzzing away. I checked it and saw that I was being paged by the Chief. "It's the Chief." I whispered to Skulls who's eyes brightened slightly at the news.

I took out my cell and speed dialed the office.

"Wild?" Greeted the Chief.

"Yes sir. I just got your page. Do we have a new case?" I asked.

"You do. I need Skulls back here. Seems Dragon's been spotted up town, we need him to go check it out. Send him back to the office so that he can be briefed on the situation."

"Will do, sir." I whispered the order to Skulls who promptly said his good byes and went quickly to his car.

"So what do you have for me?" I asked the Chief.

"We've got a missing persons case in Bloom, Texas. Stella Rossi. Nineteen years old. Graduated from Bloom High School last month. She's been missing for a week now. There's a convicted rogue living just three miles from her house. A Mr. Ezra Shade. I need you to go check up on him. Make sure he didn't have anything to do with the disappearance."

"Got it." I said, getting up from my table. "Do you have any more info on him? His turning date? His threat level? What type he is? Anything?"

"We're having trouble locating his file at the moment. I'll update you as soon as I can." Replied the Chief.

"Okay, but you know how much I hate flying blind like this." I grumbled as I climbed behind the wheel of my car.

"You'll manage. You always do." He said with a chuckle.

"Yea. I guess." I sighed. The conversation over, I hung up and dropped my cell phone back in my coat pocket.

"Where the hell is Bloom?" I wondered aloud.

**Stella:**

How much longer will I make it? Can't be too long. I haven't eaten much. He gives me water at least. I'm freezing. Can't stop shaking now. Can barely hold my head up or open my eyes. My body is numb. I can't even feel his bites any more. Is this what it's like to die?

I heard the now routine creak of the trap door being opened and the heavy footfalls of The Vampire as he climbed down the ladder.

"Good morning, beautiful." He greeted with a bright smile, as if I wasn't hanging by a chain like a piece of butchered meat.

How I hated him. I've never hated anyone so much, even people who truly pissed me off. I'd spent days hanging there. In the beginning all I thought about was how much I hurt, now that I was numb, it left me more time to think about other things. Like killing him. There were no shortage of weapons down in the dungeon. Knives lay everywhere. This was where he butchered his meals, dogs, cats, birds, pigs, and what not.

He came over to me and kissed me, such was our routine. I stopped fighting him long ago. I just hung there and let him do whatever he wanted now.

I lost count of how many times I'd fantasized about taking a butcher knife and plunging it into his heart. If he really was a vampire, then that's what you go for right? I never thought I was capable of murder. Now I know I'm quite capable of it. The human psyche is capable of anything when we're backed into a corner.

After our morning kiss, he looked me over, carefully. He opened his mouth and saliva dripped from his pointed teeth. He was hungry. "You're a bit anemic today, so I'll let you rest a while before the next feeding." He said. Then he kissed my cheek before walking over to one of his big freezers.

I was quiet while he took out a zip locked baggie of blood out of the smaller fridge he had there and tore into it with his teeth, slurping up the putrid liquid like it was the nectar of the gods.

"What's your name?" I croaked, my voice sounding muted and weak.

"What?" He asked, surprised. Blood covered his mouth.

"What's your name?" I repeated, forcing myself to speak louder.

His bloody mouth stretched into a suspicious smirk.

"Why the sudden interest?" He asked, stalking towards me.

"If I'm going to die, that I would like to at least know the name of my killer." I replied, glaring at him coldly.

He chuckled in his eerily frigid way. He cupped my face in his hand. His hands were even colder than I was. "You think I'm going to kill you?"

"I know you are. I'm not going to last much longer like this." I growled.

His thumb rubbed against my cheek, soothingly. It always creeped me out the way he could snap from affectionate to psycho in a split second.

"You're not going to die, Stella." He cooed, his lips grazing my neck.

"Look at me! Do you honestly think I'll be able to live forever like this?!" I screeched at him. My raw throat instantly protested against it, sending a wave of pain through my system.

One red eye shifted to burrow his deadly gaze into my psyche, as he whispered into my ear, in the most chilling voice I've ever heard, "You will…once I make you like me."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Sorry. Short chapter this week. I'll make Chapter 6 a long one. You have no idea how much the villian creeps me out. He scares the bejeezus out of me. Skulls is awsome. I can't wait to talk about him some more. You'll get to find out where he got his nickname from soon. So how am I doing so far? I didn't get many reviews for the last chapter so I'm going to remind you again that reviewing is the only way to keep my interest in a story. If you want more, review! Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Truth is Frightening

**Stella:**

My brain has turned to mush. It's too hard to think. Hurts too much. I've been hanging here in his butcher's workshop for what feels like forever. I have no idea how long it's actually been. The unending cycles of rest and torture are blending together. Nearly dieing has become as mundane as household chores. How sickeningly sad is that? Today seems a bit different though. I can tell The Vampire's gearing up for something. I can't help but wonder what?

He's been rushing about the house all day. I'm not sure if it's for real or just my half dead mind playing tricks on me, but I could have sworn he's been poofing in and out of existence. One minute he's flesh and blood, the next he's nothing but a shadow. I watched him and watched him until I could take no more and my scaly lips cracked open like a scabbed over wound.

"What're you doing?" I rasped.

He turned away from the throng of candles he'd been lighting and his lips curved into a misleading smile. He looked so handsome and charming in the candlelight. His dark, shoulder length hair shining in the light. His face and body lies. Those eyes of his are the only things that reveal the truth about him, they offer a glimpse at his true nature. Those blood red eyes that beam at me hungrily no matter how much of my blood he's stolen. Those horrible, unquenchable, eyes.

"I have to prepare for the ceremony, silly." He chuckled.

"Ceremony?" I asked between gasps. It was getting hard to breathe.

"Yes. Tonight is the night of your rebirth and everything has to be perfect." He said dreamily.

I was getting real fed up with him. Nothing he said made sense. "Talk like a normal person. I don't understand your damn gibberish." I growled at him.

"That's what I like about you Stella. That fiery attitude of yours." He laughed. It would sound friendly…innocent to most people, but not to me. I knew he well enough to sense the wickedness in his tone. "It's what's kept you alive all this time. You've lasted a lot longer than the others."

My eyes widened. "Others? What others?" I asked. My heart began to race wildly.

"Can you imagine what immortality is like? To never get ill or grow old? To always remain the same, while the people around you wither away and die?" He mused, taking my face in his hand and squeezing my cheeks, forcing me to look him directly in those red orbs, which I tried to avoid at all costs. "It's incredibly lonely. That's why my people tend to congregate together. We can't stand being alone. I've been alone a long time. I've been looking for a bride for nearly a hundred years. You are not the first I've brought home."

"How many?" I demanded.

"One Hundred and Fifty Eight." He replied, without missing a beat. "Few lived past the first few days and those that did, did not survive the turning, but don't worry, I've had nearly a hundred years of practice and my process is nearly perfect. I am confident that I will succeed with you where I've failed with the others. You will survive and I will finally have my eternal bride."

"How can you be so confident, when you've killed the hundred and fifty eight women before me?"

His lips pulled up in one corner. "Those women were weak. You're much stronger than any of them. I believe now that they died because it was always meant to be you, Stella." He said lowly. He kissed me and sank his teeth into my bottom lip. Blood trickled from our conjoined mouths. When the kiss was finished he licked up the red stain around his mouth. I turned my head and spat out a mouthful of metallic flavored spit.

He grinned boyishly back at me. My blood stained the front of his wife-beater. "Tonight will be perfect." He said, laughing euphorically.

He then went back to work, preparing my dungeon for what would be, in a sense, the scene of my death. I couldn't bare to watch him anymore. I closed my eyes and chose to think of better things. Mom, Gremlin,…Dad. I'm so sorry. I should have told you about the messages. I should have said something. Anything. Maybe then I would not be where I am now. Hanging by a chain watching my kidnapper prepare to kill me. Stupid. So Stupid.

**Wild:**

Thanks to the V.V.P.A's always dependable sources, I was able to find my way to the tiny town of Bloom, Texas where my newest case had taken place. Of course, there was always the possibility that this girl had run away all on her own. So I would have to check out that possibility first.

The house itself was pretty nice. It was a big colonial, two stories with white paneling and hunter green shutters. There was a dogwood tree in the front yard. There were multicolored pansies in the flowerbeds around the doorstep. The picture perfect scene was made complete by the white picket fence. If it were not for the two police offers huddled around a middle aged Italian woman with a tissue crushed in her hands there would be little evidence to say that the world wasn't all kittens, hugs, and rainbows.

"Mrs. Rossi?" I asked, approaching them. The sheriff and his deputy shot me suspicious glances.

"Yes? Can I help you, sir?" She asked, hoarsely. She'd obviously been sobbing for quite a while. The smell of tears saturated the air around her.

I pulled out my badge and showed it to her. "I'm Agent Adam Wilder with the V.V.P.A. I'm here to ask you a few questions concerning your daughter's disappearance."

"That won't be necessary, Agent…Wilson was it?" Huffed the fat old sheriff.

"Wilder." I corrected. Geeze, I hate dumb asses.

"Wilder, whatever. We have everything perfectly under control. What is the V.V.P.A anyway?"

I really hate having to explain this to people. I wish the existence of vampires was common knowledge. It would save me the aggravation. "It's a sect of the F.B.I." I replied. No need to go into full blown details.

"We don't need the fed's help. We can handle this." The sheriff growled.

It must be true what they say. Ignorance is bliss.

"Really? Have you found her yet? Any leads? Any suspects?" I asked in a calm voice, but with an edge to my tone that told him how absolutely annoyed I was becoming.

He got this deer in the headlights look on his face and his cheeks flushed crimson. "Well…uh…no." He stuttered.

"Didn't think so." I said. "Now I'm here to help. You can cooperate or not. Either way. It won't make any difference to me. I'm here to help you find the girl. End of story." I then returned all focus back to the person who really mattered, the girl's poor mother.

"Mrs. Rossi, if you don't mind, I'd like to take a look around the house." I said. I hadn't even entered the place yet and already I could smell _him_. A vampire had definitely been here. Whether or not this vamp had actually taken or harmed Stella in any way was still up for debate. It was crucial that I look around for clues.

"Of course. Please follow me." She said and led the way into the house.

The house was eerily quite. The only sounds that perked my ears were the gentle breath of the mother and the ticking of the enormous grandfather clock in the corner. We sat down in the living room, she on the couch and I in a chair across from her.

"Forgive me, sir, but I'm afraid I've never heard of the V.V.P.A either." The woman prodded, avoiding my gaze sheepishly.

"Very few people know about us." I replied. "We are a law enforcement and investigation group and, like I said before, we work with the F.B.I on cases that may need our special expertise."

Her Italian eyes narrowed slightly, "and my daughter's dissapearance warrants the government's envolvement? I wasn't aware of that. I was actually stunned at your arrival. So far all the cops keep saying is that Stella ran away."

"I take it that was not a possibility for Stella?"

Mrs. Rossi shook her head wildly, "No! She would never do something like that. She was perfectly happy. She was excited about starting art school in the fall. She was going to be a graphic designer. No, sir. Stella would not run away."

"How about friends? Boyfriends? Anyone she'd leave with?"

"No one. Stella mostly keeps to herself. She's a bit…shy with outsiders I guess. She hasn't started dating yet and she really didn't have many friends her own age and she and her best friend, Julie, have drifted apart recently."

"How about enemies? Do you know of anyone who might want to harm, Stella?" I really hated asking her. I could tell immediately that this question struck a cord with her. Her eyes teared up and the muscles in her neck tightened.

"No…everyone…everyone loves Stella." She croaked. She was obviously struggling to hold herself together.

"Was Stella involved with any…uh…shady activities?" I asked.

At my surprise, she chuckled a little, even while the tears built up in her eyes. "Are you kidding? Stella is a walking anti-drug advertisement. She's a strait arrow. A good kid."

I couldn't help but notice that she spoke of Stella in the present tense. She must still believe that her daughter is alive somewhere. Sadly, if this rogue vampire had anything to do with it, this was most likely not the case. "I'm sure she is." I said with a reassuring smile. I really hate lying to people.

I still couldn't shake that scent. It was even stronger inside. It almost seemed to emanate from the upstairs bedrooms. "Is her bedroom upstairs?" I asked. "I'd like to look through her things if you don't mind, ma'am."

"If it will help you find, Stella you can ransack the house if you want."

"Thank you." I replied then ascended up the staircase. The smell of old blood led me strait to the girl's bedroom. It was a little different from what most teenaged girls' rooms are like. No frills in sight. It was a royal blue color and sketches and drawings were everywhere. The drafting table was piled high with sketchbooks, rulers and pencils. There was an easel in the corner with a half way finished painting of a cherry blossom tree on it. However, the thing that really caught my attention was how strong the scent of vampire was in her room. It soaked the carpet, seeped from the very walls. A vampire would have had to have been here hundreds of times to leave such a calling card. Once again I sniffed around until I found what seemed to be the highest concentration of the scent. A small door right above her drawing table.

I looked over at Mrs. Rossi, who'd been watching me from the doorway. "Why is this door here?" I asked.

"That goes up into the attic. Why?" She asked.

"I'd like to take a look up there before I leave." I replied, turning towards her computer.

"Why didn't they take the computer?" I wondered aloud.

"The police said it wasn't necessary."

I couldn't help but growl at that. "Not necessary? Idiots. In this day and age everything is done with computers."

I asked her permission to go through Stella's inbox and history. She kindly concentrated.

The search history led to nothing. She mainly went to art community and fan fiction sites. I was surprised I didn't see any _MySpace, Facebook_, or _Twitter. _When I checked her inbox however, I was completely blown away by what I found. Over 200 messages from an unknown sender. I read each one of them carefully. Each said the same thing. "Now I lay you down to sleep, pray the Lord your soul to keep. If you should die before you wake, pray the Lord your soul to take." These eerie words reminded me of an old prayer I'd heard once or twice. It was a prayer taught to children, however he'd changed the wording to a degree that made it much more diabolical. I could feel Mrs. Rossi slowly edging towards me so I quickly exited out of her email. She didn't need to see that right now. She was worried enough.

"I'm going to check the attic." I told her.

"What for?" She asked.

"Just being thorough, ma'am." I lied. I was getting a bad feeling about the attic.

After moving the drawing table out of the way, I opened the door and dragged the ladder down and went up. The further I ascended, the stronger the scent of decay became. I pulled on a chain above my head and a dangling light bulb flickered on. I bared my teeth at the sight that filled my vision. Just a few feet away, right over the area where Stella's bed was, was what looked like a make shift camp. There was a fold out chair, a few blankets, some junk food rappers and an abundance of little skeleton zed, squirrels and mice littered the attic. I walked over to the camp and, shifting a few empty potato chip bags with my foot, I found a small hole. Just the right size for a discreet peep hole. There was no doubt in my mind at this point. A vampire was behind this. The camp wreaked of vampire. I could almost envision him sitting up here in this dank little hole, watching her from above through that tiny hole. He'd probably been watching her for months without her ever knowing. Among the blankets I found a girl's t-shirt and several other garments. I couldn't help but wrinkle my nose at my findings. This was really bad. This wasn't just a rogue going hunting. This was…obsession. The poor girl. My skin crawled just thinking what the creep had already done to her.

* * *

Author's Note: Sorry for the wait guys! Thank you for all the support! I promised a long chapter and I think I delivered. This is twice as long as I usally like to go. Keep the reviews coming!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Lost and Found

**Stella:**

I was stirred awake by an awful shriek. He brought another girl home tonight. She was bound with rope at the center of a ring of candles. Her eyes were wide with fear. She struggled against her restraints, but to no avail. She couldn't get free.

The Vampire walked out of a darkened corner, holding his hunting knife. I was a bit confused by how he was dressed. He was wearing a pen striped tux, his hair was pulled back in a ponytail.

"What are you doing?!" I asked, my voice a harsh croak.

He didn't say anything. He just smiled at me as he stepped into the ring of fire. He crouched down beside the girl. He covered her eyes with one hand and quickly drew the blade of the knife across her throat. A horrible gurgling sound echoed through the room. I watched in horror as he drank his fill of the girl's blood and filled two wine glasses to their brims.

He stood and placed the two wine glasses and knife on a table.

"Why?" I asked, tears streaking down my face. The salty tears stung the scratches on my face. I couldn't believe I'd just seen someone die.

"I needed a snack before the ceremony. If I'm too hungry, I'll kill you." He replied with a shrug. "Besides, you'll need a drink afterwards."

If there was anything in my belly I would've puked.

He walked back into the shadows and returned with a white lacy dress a few moments later. I tuned my face away and squeezed my eyes shut as he dressed me in the wedding dress. I tried to picture myself somewhere else, but it was hard. My mind kept reminding me of the fear I'd seen in the girl's eyes as she died.

"Now let's get those chains off and we can begin." The Vampire said, after I was all dressed. His hands slipped up my arms to where the chain wrapped around my wrists.

A loud knocking sound made the Vampire jump with a snarl. "Damn it!" He hissed.

"I'll be right back." He said and rushed up the ladder. The trapdoor came down again with a bang. I was left alone in the dark with the girl's corpse. I averted her dead gaze and looked down, where my toes just grazed floor.

**Wild:**

After leaving Stella's house I went just down the street to the home of the rogue in question, Ezra Shade. I knocked on the door a few times and about five minutes later, the door opened a little, just enough that I could see the eyes of a clearly deranged vampire, hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, studying me.

"You!" Shade gasped. He tore his sunglasses off to reveal the wild look in his eyes.

"You know me?" I asked, taking off my own shades.

"I-I remember you…back at my last trial…you wanted the council to destroy me." He stuttered. His voice was timid, but his eyes flared a brighter red.

"That would be me." I confirmed. I didn't recognize the name, but now that I saw his face and heard his voice, my memory was jogged.

It was about two years ago. He'd killed a young girl at a safe house. She'd volunteered to be fed upon, but he'd taken it too far. He'd claimed that it was all a terrible accident. That it'd been a while since he'd fed and that he'd gotten carried away. That was understandable, accidents like that happened all the time, but my gut told me that he was lying. He'd done it on purpose. His docile demeanor and charming voice fooled the council, but I knew better. The lucky bastard got off with a warning. I knew they'd just let a real threat go with just a slap on the wrist.

I got a sickening feeling in my stomach as I looked at him. My gut was screaming at me again. His smell was the same as the one that saturated the girl's room. I knew he was involved. However, I couldn't let him know I was on to him.

"May I come in, Mr. Shade? I need to ask you a few questions."

He eyed me suspiciously. "About what?"

"A girl who lives just down the street from you has gone missing. I just need to make sure that you didn't have anything to do with her disappearance."

He paused a moment then finally allowed me to enter. I looked around the dingy room. He wasn't the best house keeper. The house reeked of decay.

"What's that smell?" I asked.

"I butcher my own food. There's some meat in the freezers. And there's some meat hanging up in the basement." He explained with a strange gleam in his eyes.

I did think it was a bit odd that he had multiple freezers, but then again some older vampires can be a bit eccentric. Some like to keep themselves heavily stocked so that they can suppress the urge to go hunting. I still wasn't buying it though.

"Are you going somewhere?" I asked, noticing the nice tux he was wearing.

"I have a wedding to get to, so lets make this quick, if you don't mind, officer." He huffed.

"I won't keep you long, sir. Did you know Stella Rossi, the missing girl?" I asked.

His eyes shifted to the side and he stuffed his hands in his pockets. Though he tried to avoid my gaze, I saw the far away look in their crimson depths. "I knew of her. She'd walk past here on her way to school. When I was moving in, she helped me carry some boxes in from my truck. She was really nice. Pretty too."

"Sounds like you had a thing for her." I implied.

He shot me an odd look and his lips pulled into a smirk. "Yea. I was crazy about her. Couldn't get her out of my head. Barely ate for weeks. I wanted to ask her out, but I was too afraid to. She being human and all. Have you ever fallen in love with a human before, Agent Wilder?" He asked.

I was caught off my guard by his question. "Not since my turning." I replied.

"Pray you never do. The smell of their blood is even more intoxicating. It gets under your skin, messes with your mind, makes you do things you normally wouldn't. Crazy things. Not even a goodie-two-shoes like you could resist."

Okay. He was really starting to weird me out. "What do you mean? What did you do?" I asked. Was he going to confess?

"I broke into her house, watched her, stole some of her clothes, sent her letters and things. I'm sure you've already checked out her house and caught my scent all over the place." His smirk stretched wider. "I admit I stalked her a bit, but that was it."

My eyes narrowed slightly. "You sure that things didn't get out of hand again? I know you were stalking her. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to think you did something else to her."

He looked at me like he was offended by my assumption. "I love Stella. I'd never hurt her. You're just wasting your time here."

"Right." I scoffed, "Then you won't mind me searching the place will you Mr. Shade?"

He smiled his fake charming smile at me. "Of course not. I have nothing to hide."

"Good." I took out my specially made cuffs and he aloud me to cuff him to one of his heavy duty freezers.

I left Shade in the living room and made my way through the dilapidated old building. I could definitely smell the decay of animals throughout the house, but I also smelled the unmistakable aroma of freshly shed human blood. I checked every freezer I could find. It was ridiculous how many he had. There was at least one in every room, except the bath room, and I had the sneaking suspicion that was because it was too small to hold one. Every freezer held body upon body of animals: dogs, cats, rats, deer, pigs, you name it, it was in there.

As I entered the bedroom, I was once again disappointed. Nothing was out of the ordinary…for a vampire's bedroom at least. The windows were boarded up. The room was even more gloomy than the rest of the house. Still the smell of human blood wafted up my nose, taunting all my senses. My stomach growled eagerly. The pain of thirst scratched at the back of my throat, like a tiger desperately trying to escape from his cage. There was no doubting it. Somewhere in this house someone was bleeding. But where? There was nowhere left to look. I went around the bed to check the closet. As my foot came down on an old rug, there was a loud creak. It perked my interest. I pulled back the rug and uncovered a door. I threw it open and the smell of death pounded against my face.

"Thought you could pull a fast one on me, aye Shade?" I wondered aloud. I took a quick look around then climbed down the ladder into the secret room.

I let out a gasp at what I found. The room was dimly lit by a ring of flickering candles. At the center of the ring was a dead girl. She was young. Roughly between fourteen and sixteen years of age. She was blond and she was too young to be the girl I was looking for. As I edged closer to the gruesome scene, a soft melodic sound perked my ears.

"Now I lay you down to sleep. Pray the Lord your soul to keep. If you should die before you wake, pray the Lord your soul to take." The weak female voice sang in a tone drenching with despair.

As I drew nearer, the form of a young woman in a white dress slowly came into focus. My eyes widened in shock. I recognized her face, as drawn and screwed up with pain as it was. It was Stella Rossi! She was alive!

"My god!" I gasped. I'd never seen a vampire do something as cruel and vindictive as this. He had her hanging by a heavy chain from the basement ceiling, like a piece of beef. Her arms were grotesquely contorted, obviously dislocated. They'd turned a bluish black color. Despite her damaged arms, he still had her dangling above the floor. Her toes barely grazed it. All her weight now pulled at her arms. Aside from the dislocated arms, she was also covered in teeth marks, scratches, and bruises. The sight of her made _me_ hurt.

I hurried over to her. " Stella! Stella can you hear me?" I asked her, gently patting her face. Her eyes, glassed over with pain, would not focus on me. She kept staring towards the other girl's body and whispering the twisted bedtime prayer, madly.

Looking at her swollen wrists and mutilated arms, I realized that simply unfastening the chains would be devastatingly painful for her. Good thing I'm a Sleeper type vampire. "Stella, I'm going to put you to sleep now." I told her. I inhaled a gulp of breath. I held it in my chest a moment, allowing it to mix with the sleeper toxin that my body naturally produces. Finally, I pressed my lips to hers and passed the poisonous mist into her . She took in the toxin in shallow breaths. Within moments, her head rolled to the side and her body with limp.

Stella now sleeping peacefully, I reached up and snapped the chains that bound her wrists. Her body fell free of the chains and I caught her in my arms.

I threw her over my shoulder and flew up the ladder to the upper floor. I could feel the burn of thirst intensify with my rage. He'd gotten away last time, but this time, I'd make sure he burned…personally.

I rushed back to the living room, my mind whirling with so much anger, I could hardly see straight. This could all have been avoided. I knew from the first moment I laid eyes on Ezra Shade that he was the type of vampire that killed not because he couldn't control his blood lust, but because he delighted in the actual killing. If the council had listened to me, lives could have been spared. I would not allow them to make the same mistake again.

"Shade!" I yelled, as I stormed into the room. However, I found the room completely empty. The hand cuffs dangled from the freezer's latch, void of the prisoner they once held. The locks on the cuffs had not been broken. A rumbling hiss drew my attention to an open window. Perched in a half crouch, was a misty shadowed form of a man. "Shit!" I growled. He's a Shadow Shifter!

I whipped my gun out and fired a couple of rounds at Shade's shadow form. The solar rounds passed harmlessly through him and he jumped through the window and vanished in a puff of thick smoke. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" I cursed over and over again. "Idiot!" I yelled at myself. How could I have been so careless?

Taking a deep breath to calm my fried nerves, I laid Stella on the couch, holstered my gun, and pulled out my cell phone. I called Chief to let him know what was going on.

"I got Stella Rossi. She's alive, but there was another casualty. A kid. And ugh…Shade…got away." I pulled the phone away from my ear so it wouldn't have to endure the loud yelling.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know he was a Shadow Shifter. He got out of my cuffs." I paused as he barked my orders. "Yea…I'll wait here for back up…sorry Chief." I said, then closed my cell phone and placed it back in my jacket. I sat on the couch next to Stella and leaned my head back against the head rest. What a crappy day…At least Stella was safe…for now. I glanced over at her sleeping face. "I'm sorry that I let you down. I promise I won't rest until that creep burns for what he's done. I give you my word."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Sorry this took me so long guys! I didn't mean to leave you hanging. Hopefully, I'll be able to get Chapter 8 up for you soon. In chapter 8 we'll be exploring the different types of vampires and we'll meet some more characters. Please don't forget to review. A real quick one will do. I just want to hear what you think. Thank you to everyone who has supported me this far. :)


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Welcome to Dark Haven

**Stella:**

My vision swam. My thoughts tumbled in my head. A dense fog clouded my senses. Voices sounded far away. My sight was not yet clear.

A man's face conquered my imagination. Porcelain skin. Hair that shone a sunshine gold. He had the same predatory red eyes as my tormentor and yet…I was not afraid. His eyes were somehow different. His eyes seemed gentile…peaceful…sad. I remember he said that I was safe and I completely believed him, despite what he was. He sucked in a breath, held it, then his lips parted slowly. A smoky blue fog seeped from his cracked lips. It encircled me, filled me. It smelled of honeysuckle. I tasted the sweet tartness of pomegranate on my tongue. The man drew closer and kissed me. I felt him breathe the strange breath into me. As we shared this breath, I was suddenly reminded of the story of man's creation from Sunday school. God formed man from the dust of the earth, and breathed the breath of life into him; and man became a living being. This man lulled me to sleep with his breath and I felt no more pain, I no longer dreaded death or worried for my family. I was at peace.

Now I slowly awakened. The dreamless sleep left me. I was no longer in pain, but my anxiousness for my family and loved ones rushed back to the forefront of my mind. It made my heart ache. I wanted to scream out for the mysterious man from before, so that he could send me back into my dream of nothingness. How I wanted that peace!

I blinked against the glaring light above me. Shaking, I pulled myself up into a sitting position on the hospital type bed I'd been laying on. The room around me reminded me of the nurses office back at Bloom High.

The room smelled like disinfectant. I used to wrinkle my nose whenever I entered a hospital, but now I took in the tainted air in gulps. To me, who'd been locked away in a butcher's house for who knows how long, the air was as sweet as roses.

As I breathed in slowly, I suddenly realized that my arms were working again. I looked them over . They were fine. Completely fine, aside from some faint scarring from the Vampire's bite marks. I had the eerie feeling that, like the scars he'd left on my soul, these scars too would never fully heal. "What the…" I gasped, unable to contain my dismay. I thought for sure that my arms were dead. They'd been dislocated for far too long.

"Oh good you're awake, sleepy head." Greeted a cheerful voice.

My eyes darted towards the doorway, where a woman in a white coat stood, balancing a tray holding an enormous cinnamon roll in one hand.

"You couldn't have picked a better day. Today's cinnamon roll day in the cafeteria." She giggled. Her laugh was like the tinkling of wind chimes.

I stared at her in a mute daze, unable to look away from her red eyes. Another one? Would this nightmare never end?

As if she knew what I was thinking, she placed the tray down on her desk in the corner, and approached me slowly with a friendly expression on her pretty face. "I'm sorry, Ms. Rossi, I forgot my shades in my car this morning. There's no need to fear me. You're safe."

"Get away from me!" I hissed at her, scrambling to the far side of the bed.

"Now, Stella. Don't be like that. I'm not the enemy here. I'm the one that healed your arms."

I swallowed a deep breath and studied her face. Here eyes reminded me of the man who'd saved me. They were gentile and calm, but there was no sadness, just an eerie power that unnerved me.

"Your eyes…you're like him aren't you?" I stuttered.

"No I'm not. I am a vampire, but that does not make me like him. I'm on your side, Stella. We all are. Nobody's going to hurt you." She replied calmly.

"You all are?" I prodded.

"Everyone who works for the Vampire Victim Protection Agency are vampires, Stella. We are all conformists. We abide by laws that have been set by both human and our own governments. We do not attack humans. The vampire that attacked you was a rogue, a criminal. Our job is to protect humans from rogues. You are under no threat from us." She explained.

"Whatever you say, doc." I replied, sarcastically. "So how did you fix my arms?" I asked.

"Easy. I injected a small amount of vampire blood into each arm. Vampire blood and saliva holds healing properties that allows us to heal wounds and regenerate whole body parts. It works wonders on humans as well."

"You did what?! Won't that turn me or something?!" I panicked. I ran my tongue quickly over my teeth. Funny. My canines didn't feel any sharper.

The blond beauty shook her head with a smirk. "You've been reading too many teen vampire novels." She chuckled. "Turning someone isn't quite that easy. If it were, we'd outnumber humans 1,000 to 1."

I let out a huge sigh of relief. "So I'm okay?"

"Yep. You're perfectly normal." She replied with a smile.

"That's good. So when can I go home?"

The doctor's eyes turned sad. She stalled a moment before replying, "I'm not sure. It depends on how long it takes the agents to find Ezra Shade."

My eyes widened as the name left her lips. "E-Ezra S-Shade." I stuttered, "Is that who took me?" I asked, my brain reeling.

The woman nodded.

I couldn't believe I'd been that blind. How could I not have recognized him? I remembered him now. A couple of years back, a young man, maybe in his early twenties, has moved into a rundown old house just down the street from my bus stop. I remembered that he'd seemed pretty nice and was well…I have to admit, cute. I had thought it was strange that he was wearing jeans, a sweatshirt, a baseball cap, and a pair of shades in early May when the temperatures can exceed the 80's mark. He had dropped some boxes as he was carrying them in and I left my friends to help him carry them inside. He thanked me while we were inside and introduced himself as Ezra Shade. I realized with a sharp pain of horror in the pit of my stomach, that I'd been the one that had told him my name. Thinking back, I recalled how uneasy I had felt around him. Even though he was wearing sunglasses, I knew he was staring at me. I had gotten out of there as quickly as I could, saying that I was late for class. I saw him a few times after that, just standing out on his lawn in the morning. He'd wave at me every morning as I passed him, but then suddenly, after my dad was deployed to Iraq, all that stopped. I never saw him after that. That was until the day in the pool.

"I can't believe I didn't recognize him." I gasped, my body shaking with shock.

"Actually, it's not that unbelievable. Our kind are experts at blending into the crowd, going unnoticed. It's what has kept our species from going extinct all these millennia." The doctor chimed in. She laid a gentle hand on my shoulder. "You wait here, and I'll go get you some clothes. I hope you don't mind my hand-me-downs."

I shook my head, "No. That's fine. Thank you."

I watched her leave and waited patiently listening to her footsteps as they drew further and further away. When I could no longer hear their echo, I finally got up from the bed and hastily made my escape. Even if I couldn't go home, I could still at least reach a phone and let my mom know I was okay. I walked quickly down the hall. Paranoid, I kept glancing over my shoulder every two seconds, fearing that a red eyed monster would appear out of the many doorways that lined the hall at any moment.

As I rounded a corner, I heard a bell chime, and all at once, the doors swung open and a throng of the beasts came pouring out into the hallway. I whirled around in a daze, taking in the eerily placid faces with the burning eyes. Most of them passed me by as if they hadn't seen me, but others took the time to flash me a hungry glare. The horrid eyes staring back at me could not lie. They were all like him! Every last damn one!

I let out a high pitched shriek, and collapsed onto my knees on the cold floor. I covered my eyes with my hands, still screaming.

"Stella." Called a familiar female voice. I lowered my hands and stared up into the furious glare of the doctor. The red pigment of her eyes flashed to white. "Be Quiet." She said in a level voice. At once, my mouth shut and my screaming stalled in my throat. Her eyes still white, she said, "Go back to the infirmary and dress yourself. Do not move from that room until I return for you."

As if I no longer had free will I, my body at least, complied with her command. I kept screaming at my legs to stop inside my head, but they wouldn't listen. It was like I was a prisoner deep inside of myself. I was no longer in control of my bodily functions. She was. This must be the terrible power I had sensed when we'd first met. That terrifying energy which hid there in her crimson eyes.

**Wild:**

At the chime of the bell, which signified the end of the work day and the end of classes for the fledglings, I grabbed my things and went out into the main hall. A woman's shriek perked my keen ears. My eyes followed the sound to a young girl in a hospital gown screaming a the top of her lungs. I recognized the mane of wild, dark curls. Stella.

I was about to go calm her down, but I stopped when I saw Candy approach her. She could handle it. Candy is, after all, a Puppeteer. All vampires have the ability to hypnotize humans to get them to do what we want, but in Puppeteers this ability is taken to the extreme. They can actually manipulate humans, fellow vampires, and even objects with their minds, something like a mixture of mind control and telekinesis. Candy is exceptionally skilled. One look into Candy's white gaze, and the subject, Stella in this case, is helplessly under her control.

After she'd sent Stella back to the infirmary, I walked up behind her. "It scares me what you can do with that brain of yours." I teased.

She turned and smiled at me as her eyes slowly regained their color. "You have no idea." She chuckled, with just a tint of darkness. "Skulls seems to enjoy it though." She added with a chuckle.

"Eww." I muttered. "Haven't I told you a thousand times that I don't want to know what goes on in you and Skulls' sex life. It makes me want to puke."

"I know, but I love seeing that look on your face. It's priceless!" She jabbed with a haughty laugh.

"You're evil, Candy." I grumbled.

"Just a little." She replied with a wink.

* * *

Author's Note- This was sort of a short chapter, but I really liked it. The banter between Candy and Wild at the end was especially fun. XD Thanks to all who have enjoyed the story this far!


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Shade's Fate

**Stella:**

My remotely controlled body took me back to the infirmary. There I found a duffle bag, which held a few changes of clothes. My body quickly dressed itself, as my inner self watched on in dismay. Usually during the summer, I reside in shorts and baggy t-shirts. The doctor obviously did not share my since of style. I found myself in a pair of skinny jeans, a flowy white blouse with ruffled capped sleeves, the thin fabric bustled at the bottom of my rib cage then fell away to twirl around my hips. Lastly, my feet were donned with a pair of blush pink ballet flats.

I missed my Slipknot t-shirt.

Never in my whole life have I felt so girly, not even at prom, which was an absolute disaster by the way.

There was a rapid knock on the door and a moment later the doctor entered. She smiled at me and suddenly I was in control of my body once more. Then she turned to someone out in the hall, motioning for them to come in.

My eyes widened and my breath caught in my throat as the man from my blurry memory walked through the door. He looked exactly as I remembered. Golden hair which he swept away from his forehead, with a few loose strands that fell near his temples. His face was fair, but it held a masculine power, which entranced me. Those sad ruby eyes watched me with a gentile air. My gaze slowly drifted across his serene face to stare at his lips, which parted and began to form words. He had a lovely voice, like something from a romance novel. It was low with a slight British accent, like he'd grown out of it over the years, which made him even more mysterious and exotic. It sort of reminded me of James Bond.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and I shook myself out of my stupor. "S-sorry. W-what were you saying?" I stuttered, my face flashing red.

To my surprise, he didn't laugh at me. Although I did notice his lips curve ever so slightly in one corner. As if he wanted to laugh, but didn't want anyone know.

"I said, how are you feeling?" He repeated the question for me.

"I'm good." I replied. I flexed my arms for him. "My arms are working again and they don't hurt at all."

"Good. I'm glad you're doing well, Miss Rossi." He said with a nod, clasping his hands behind his back and looking very Bond-like in the process. "I understand that you are having problems coping with being here at headquarters. I assure you, no one here will harm you. It is my duty to make sure of that."

"And who exactly are you?" I interrupted.

He took a moment, then he bowed slightly, like he was a servant. "My name is Adam Wilder. I am an agent for the V.V.P.A, the Vampire Victim Protection Agency."

"You're the one who rescued me, aren't you?" I asked. I was sure it was him, but I needed to make sure my mind wasn't playing tricks on me.

"Yes, miss." He replied.

"Thank you, Mr. Wilder." I choked, fighting back tears. "I-I was so sure that I was going to die there. I didn't think anyone would ever find me. I had given up a long time ago. There's really no way I can thank you enough."

He raised his hand to stop me. "No. Don't thank me, just yet. I got you out of there, but Shade got away. It's not over yet. When a vampire like that sets his mind on a target, there's no way you can stop him from going after it. As long as he's living, you're in grave danger. That's why you must be kept here, under my watch. He'll definitely come after you again and when he does, I'll stop him. Only when he's been taken care of, can you ever return to your life outside of headquarters."

My stomach suddenly dropped to my feet. "You mean I can't leave until you find Ezra?"

"Well, after he's dead, preferably." He added, nonchalantly.

"Y-you mean you have to kill him?" I hated him and all, but I'd kind of prefer that he be locked away forever, so he'd know how I felt.

"The only way to make him stop is to either put him into hibernation or kill him. The council doesn't like to give his kind the pleasure of an eternal sleep, besides, storage space is limited."

"I see. H-how do they…you know…do it?"

He stalled for a split moment, like he was unsure if he should tell me. "Fire."

I wasn't sure why but the idea that they were going to kill Ezra, made me uneasy. Yea, I hated him. The very thought of him made me want to hurl myself off a cliff (Twilight humor :P), but…during my time with him, I had realized that he wasn't…all there. He was obviously, mentally unstable. He needed help.

"Can't you hospitalize him or something. He needs a psychiatrist, not a death sentence."

"There is no such thing for vampires. Once you go off the deep end, there's no bringing you back. If he truly is insane, then the most humane thing is to destroy him. I know it sounds barbaric, but we have no other choice."

"I…I understand." I sighed.

"Good. Now, come with me and you can call your parents."

My spirits lifted immediately. "Really?!" I gasped.

He smiled crookedly at me. "Yes. There's no rule against a phone call. I'm sure your mom and dad, will be happy to hear your voice.

My eyes doubled and my heart stopped it's rapid thudding. "D-dad?" I stuttered.

Mr. Wilder's smirk grew into a charming smile. I swallowed hard and took a step back at the glisten of his fangs.

"We made a few phone calls. You're father is home, Miss Rossi."

**Shade:**

"Damn that detective!" I hissed, baring my fangs as I reformed my body. I staggered down the alley way, breathing heavily. I'd spent half the day in my shadow form and now I was exhausted. Near the end of the alleyway, stood a woman with cropped hair. She guarded the back entrance of _The Dragon's Den, _a local safe house.

I came to the door and the woman placed her hand on my chest, just over my heart. She was obviously a Brawler type. Her strength was amazing. Her hand barely gripped me, but I could not move any further.

"Speak the code." She said in a level voice.

"Men reprobo per lux lucis , successio ut atrum." I rasped. The code is a secret pass word, spoken in Latin, which only vampires know. In English it means, "Men rejected by the light, descend to the dark."

The bouncer nodded then stepped aside and aloud me to enter the safe house. A safe house is basically a bar for vampires. It's where we go to drink away pain and stress, maybe even hook up in process. Of course blood is served in place of apple martinis here. You can get blood in one of ways in a safe house, either in a glass or from the source. The club owner keeps the place heavily stocked with human vampire wannabes, which he's paid off. The patrons call them "Scarlett Throats" because they all wear red scarves when they come to the club.

I went over to my usual booth and collapsed into the leather seats.

I scanned the room till I found a Scarlett Throat with curly black hair, like Stella's. I flagged her down and she made her way over to me.

"Hello, sweet heart." I said with my friendliest smile. "What's your name?"

She smiled and batted her eye lashes. "Cassy." She replied.

"Name's Ezra." I patted the seat next to me. "Please, sit down."

She took her seat and unwound the scarf from around her throat, offering it up to me. Clearly she'd had an eventful night. There were at least two other sets of bite marks on the soft flesh of her slender neck. "Are you hungry, Ezra?" She cooed, flirtatiously.

"Ravenous." I said lowly, wrapping my arm around her shoulder and drawing her into my embrace.

A rattling hiss escaped my throat as I opened my mouth. I clasped my hand over her mouth as I bit down into the muscles and tendons of her neck. The loud music drowned out her struggles. Warm blood gushed into my mouth, soothing the aching thirst. I tore away a chunk of flesh, then bit down hard again, crushing her wind pipe. I drank my fill, then laid her body down on the booth's seat. I tied her scarf around her neck to hide the gaping wound. Finally, I wiped the gore from my face with a napkin. Her blood had slaked my thirst, but it didn't satisfy my blood lust. A look alike wouldn't do. I needed the real Stella.

However, now that those good goodies down at the V.V.P.A had her, catching her again would be much more difficult. If I were to succeed I'd need a little help. Which was why I came to _The Dragon's Den _in the first place. I wonder if the Dragon is at home?

* * *

Author's Note: Sorry another short chapter. I'm trying to update quickly and it will probably be a while before I can update again. I only have 4 more weeks of school left and I have final papers, projects, and exams to worry about from here until summer break. Look for Chapter 10 sometime in June.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Dragon Stirs

**Stella:**

I followed Mr. Wilder down the hall to his office. I felt all tingly with excitement. After all this time, Dad was home. I could finally hear his voice…at the very least.

"There's the phone." Mr. Wilder said, pointing at the phone on his paper littered desk. I sat down in his leather desk chair. I pushed a pile of files to the side and picked the phone up from it's receiver. Mr. Wilder got a wooden chair from the corner and placed it on the other side of the desk. He sat down and crossed his legs, folding his hands on his lap.

"Do you have to watch me make a phone call?" I asked, a little miffed.

He nodded with a smirk. "I don't want you making another break for it."

I rolled my eyes at him then tried to ignore him as I dialed my home phone number. Dad picked up after the first ring. "Hello!" He shouted into the phone. His voice sounded both excited and weary.

I was taken aback by the sound of his voice. It took me a moment to reply. "Dad." I finally croaked. I quickly whirled the chair around so that the back of the chair was faced towards Mr. Wilder. I didn't want him to see me cry.

"Stella!" Dad practically screamed with shock. "Oh my god! Stel! Where are you?"

"Hi, Dad. It's so good to hear your voice. I…um…I'm at V.V.P.A headquarters right now."

"Yea, they told me they'd be keeping you there for a while, till they found the guy that took you. Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

"He …um…hurt me pretty bad, Dad, but I'm okay now. The nurse here is awesome." I replied, allowing a little bit of humor into my voice.

"That son of bitch!" Dad cursed under his breath. I don't think he meant for me to hear that. "I'm so glad you're okay, Stel." He sighed into the phone. His voice began to shake, and even though I couldn't see him, I knew he was crying.

My tears then became a flood. I sobbed so hard, it was hard to breathe. How I wanted to be there, so I could wrap my arms around him and tell him how much I loved him and how much I'd missed him. In my entire nineteen years, I'd never seen my father cry. I never even thought he could. I guess, even tough guys like him have their limits.

I went on speaking with my dad for a while, then he switched me over to mom, then to Matt. I cried until the tears just stopped coming. Finally, Mr. Wilder came over to me and tapped his wrist watch, signaling to me that it was time to end it. Reluctantly, I said my good byes and hung up.

"Here." Mr. Wilder said, handing me a wad of tissues. I wiped the tears and snot off of my face. God, I must've looked like crap.

"Do you feel better now?" he asked, stuffing his hands in his pockets nonchalantly.

"Loads", I replied with a sniffle.

He placed his hand on my back and led me back out into the hall. "Come with me, and we'll get you something to eat. You must be starving. The cafeteria food isn't the best, but it's better than most."

"I think mud, would taste delicious to me at this point." I sighed.

The cafeteria was much like the one back in Bloom High, except there wasn't an enormous Bee in a football jersey painted on the far wall and it wasn't packed with hormone crazed teenagers. In fact, there was barely anyone around, except for the four people sitting around a single table.

Mr. Wilder took me through the lunch line. The big hairy lunch ladies in gloves and hairnets were replaced by a couple of goddesses in gloves, hairnets, low cut tops and high heeled shoes, strangely enough. Mr. Wilder went ahead of me. He got himself a cup of coffee and a delicious looking cinnamon roll as big as my head. He made small talk with the beautiful lunch ladies. They both giggled and flirted with him. He smiled charmingly at them, showing them his fangs. It made me cringe, but it made them blush violently and eye him like two lionesses getting ready to pounce on a lame gazelle. You could practically smell the estrogen these two were radiating. He barely seemed to notice. At the end of the line, he turned towards me and told me to go sit with him at the table with the other four when I was done. I loaded my plate down with one of those giant cinnamon roles, pizza, a cheeseburger, two orders of fries, a brownie, and a nice healthy salad, because you know I'm watching my girlish figure. I grabbed a cherry coke at the end of the line, then went over to sit beside Mr. Wilder with, what I could only guess were his friends.

"Ms. Rossi, let me introduce you to everyone. Of course, you've met Candy already." He began motioning towards the doctor. She smiled and waved in a friendly manor. "That's my partner, Skulls, beside her." The sight of Skulls made me inhale sharply. He was a very big, burly guy, built with pure muscle. His head was shaved bald, but the thing that really scared me was that he had a tattoo that made his face look like a grinning skull. Mr. Wilder must have noticed the creeped out look on my face. "I guess you know why we call him Skulls. Don't worry, that tattoo's all for show. He won't bite." I highly doubted that, he being a vampire and all. He then introduced me to a gorgeous woman with wavy hair, almost the same shade of red as her eyes. "That's Icy." Finally, he came to a young looking guy, with short brown hair, that was brushed so the side in a dorky way. "And that's Slim."

They all greeted me with a reassuring smile. Well… all except for Icy. She struck me as the snotty, snow queen type. I was really surprised by how young Slim seemed to be. He didn't look much older than sixteen.

I sat down next to Mr. Wilder, just across the table from Slim and everyone went on with their meals. Slim was having some trouble opening his milk carton. "Let me get that for you. These things can be temperamental sometimes." I joked. I reached over and popped the mouth of the carton open for him.

Slim smiled brightly at me. "Thanks." He said.

I smiled back at him. "No problem." Out of all the monsters here. Slim appeared the least threatening to me. I looked around at the group. They all were eating quietly. Candy was making yummy noises as she devoured her giant cinnamon roll. Hadn't she already eaten one just a while ago? Mr. Wilder was sipping at his coffee. Skulls took a big bite out of his cheeseburger. Icy picked at her salad. "I thought vampires just ate blood?" I inquired. My voice sounded really loud in the quiet room.

They all looked at me and chuckled.

"If we ate nothing but blood, we'd be confined to graveyards and caves like we are in those horrible horror flicks." Icy sneered.

"Well yea, there's that, and food is really good." Candy said, placing another piece of cinnamon roll in her mouth.

"What they mean to say, is that we eat both to make ourselves seem normal and out of habit or pleasure." Mr. Wilder explained, rolling his eyes at the two women.

"I get it." I replied, and went to work on my own meal. As I ate my way through my pile of food, a barrage of questions filled my head. There were lots of things I wanted to know about them. I watched them out of the corner of my eye. It was creepy how human they appeared. If I couldn't see the red eyes, burning from their skulls, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

"How old are you?" Asked Slim, snapping my mind back to attention.

"I just turned nineteen a couple of months ago." I answered. "How about you? You look even younger than me."

He flashed me a wide grin. "Do you honestly want to know my real age?" He laughed. His eyes sparkled with dark delight. "I think it would surprise you." His fangs seemed to get a little longer.

Suddenly, he looked more threatening than anyone else at the table. I gulped loudly. "I-I'm not so sure now." I stuttered, cringing slightly.

Slim jumped with a yelp. "Ow, that hurt, Icy! Why'd you kick me?"

Icy glared side ways at him, as she stabbed a baby carrot with her fork. "You're freaking her out, dumb ass!"

"Sorry." Slim apologized. "I didn't mean to scare you. It's just I think it's funny when people underestimate me." He shrugged his narrow shoulders.

"Why?" I asked, hesitantly. There was still that odd darkness in his expression.

His predatory eyes scanned the table briefly, then locked with mine. His gaze was still, as steady as that of a cat just before it pounces. "Because I'm the oldest one here." He said. "I'll be five hundred and thirty in January." He snickered at my flabbergasted expression. "Contrary to your species, ours gets stronger with age. My power is second only to the chief. You see, Ms. Rossi, one should not judge a book by it's cover." He got up and bowed swiftly, "Good Day, Ms. Rossi. It was a pleasure meeting you." With that, he picked up his tray and strode away.

"Don't mind him." Mr. Wilder whispered in my ear. "Slim was just messing with you. He gets a kick out of freaking people out. He's harmless really…most of the time."

"You guys really live that long? Are you immortal, like they say?" I asked the table.

"Nothing's immortal, kid." Growled Skulls in his gruff voice.

Candy squeezed his large hand. " We can live for a long time though, if nothing happens to us, but we seldom get as old as Slim and the Chief."

"Why is that? I wouldn't think that you can get sick easily, since you live off human blood." I inquired.

"We have other vampires to worry about. Covens are constantly fighting with each other over territory. And then there are some humans who know how to deal with our kind. They can be problematic. They nearly wiped us out back in the colonial period. I believe humans call it the Witch Hunts?" She explained.

My eyes widened. "There are vampire hunters too?"

She nodded. "Of course. There aren't as many now as before, but they are out there. Right now, it's pretty rare to find vampires who survived that holocaust, but life expectancy has risen significantly since the council started working with the human governments. The future looks quite promising for us." She pecked Skulls sweetly on his cheek.

"Ugh. I'm trying to eat, Candy!" Icy hissed. "Get a room!"

Both Candy and Skulls smirked devilishly at her. "Gladly." Candy chuckled. "Come on, Ben. Let's go back to the apartment." She pulled him to his feet and the two of them left arm in arm.

Mr. Wilder's chair screeched across the floor as he stood up with his tray. "You finished, Ms. Rossi?" He asked, peering down at me.

I nodded speechlessly as I quickly gathered my clean tray and trash.

"See you tomorrow, Icy." He bid, with a quick, unenthusiastic wave.

"Bye." She mumbled, stuffing a big leaf of ranch dressing drenched lettuce into her mouth. "Say hi to Lillian for me."

"Will do." He replied, hurrying off.

I followed closely behind as he walked swiftly down the halls. As we walked out of the building, Mr. Wilder took out his shades and slipped them on. He did so in one swift motion, like a detective on one of those crime shows. He was awesome! "Where are we going?" I asked, finally. The sun was setting, yet I saw that he still squinted his eyes a bit behind his shades.

He turned his head to look at me over his shoulder. "My apartment. It's not very big, but I've got room for you. You'll be staying with me until we get Shade taken care of."

"K." I replied. Even with the sun going down, it was still hot outside. I wiped some sweat from my forehead. Mr. Wilder pulled his coat tighter around his frame.

We climbed into his car and he started the engine. "Buckle up." He ordered as he put the car into gear. I quickly did as I was told. Good thing too, because the wheels screeched in protest as he roared out of the parking lot at upwards of sixty miles an hour. Vampires must have death wishes.

I looked around the interior of the small car. Take out coffee cups were stuck in every cup holder and littered the floor boards. "Wow. You really like coffee, huh?"

"It reminds me of a simpler time." He said, his eyes shifted only briefly to glance my way before settling once again on the road ahead.

After we arrived at the apartment building, I followed Mr. Wilder up to the third level, where his apartment was. It was pretty normal looking, neither run down nor super fancy. I could tell that he rarely spent time there. There were only minimal decorations. There was just an old beige couch, some curtains, a TV that looked like it could be one of the first out of the factory, and a tiny table. There was no artwork or decorative rug, and the walls were all eggshell white. There wasn't even magnets on the fridge. I've never been in a more boring place.

"You work a lot don't you?" I asked with a sigh. The blah-ness was making my eyes burn.

He shrugged his broad shoulders. "I usually sleep at headquarters when I have to." He slipped his coat off and threw it across the back of a chair. "You can take the bed. It's in here." He opened a door to show me his bedroom. It was just as boring as the rest of the apartment, except there were a few photographs on the dresser.

"I can take the couch, if you want. I hate to take your bed from you." I said.

He ran his hand over his blond hair. "Don't worry about it. We don't sleep much anyway. Besides, you deserve a comfortable place to sleep after everything you've been through." He motioned towards a door to the left. "The bathroom's through there if you need to use it. Feel free to use the kitchen, though I doubt there's anything to eat in there. Is there anything else you need?"

I looked around as I thought. "Um…do you have a t-shirt I could borrow?" I asked, fidgeting with the fabric of the dressy shirt the doctor had given me. "I could use something to sleep in. This thing isn't very comfortable."

"Sure" He said. He opened up the dresser and pulled out one of his button down shirts. "Will this do?" He asked. "I don't wear t-shirts."

"That's fine. I guess. Thanks." I sighed, taking the shirt from him. I tried my best to hide my disappointment. How could he never wear t-shirts? That's a total crime!

"You're welcome. Anything else?" He asked, undoing his tie and unbuttoning the first few buttons of his shirt.

"Just one thing." I began, biting my lip nervously. "Icy mentioned someone named Lillian. Who is that? Is it your wife or girlfriend or something?" I asked, tearing my eyes away. I could feel my face flush horribly. I hoped he wouldn't read too much into my very personal questions. It was just that I didn't see any evidence of a girl living here. Or anyone for that matter.

He ran his hand through his hair, tussling it into disarray. "Lillian is my daughter. She doesn't live with me."

"Divorce?" I asked. His expression became solemn and I immediately regretted jumping to that conclusion.

"No. I was turned a very long time ago. My wife has been dead for many years and Lillian is an adult now. She lives at a retirement home uptown."

"You mean she's elderly?" I gawked, completely and utterly shocked.

"Very. She'll be a hundred and three in August." He muttered with a small smirk. His eyes took on a haze as his thoughts drifted to a far away place and time. "I visit her when I can. The orderlies think that I'm one of her grandchildren. When she tells them that her father's ghost came to visit her, they chalk it up to her dementia. However, most of the time she forgets I was even there." He crossed his arms as he shifted uncomfortably on his feet. I saw him swallow hard in an effort to keep his calm composure.

"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked. That must be so difficult for you. To watch your daughter slowly deteriorate like that." I apologized in a soft voice. I squeezed his shirt tightly against my chest. The look on his face made my heart break for him.

"Loosing loved ones, staying the god damn same while they grow old and die is the price you pay for being what we are. It's part of the curse. You would think that I'd be used to it by now, though, after almost a hundred bloody years." He sighed heavily, clearing his throat. "But watching those you love slowly die never gets any easier." He shook his head as he turned on his heel and walked towards the door.

"I'm sorry. Again. I didn't mean to upset you." I said sadly.

"Don't worry about it. Lillian's just a touchy subject for me. That's all. You were just curious and that's only human. I sometimes forget what that was like." He smiled weakly at me. "Have a good night, Miss Rossi."

"Please call me Stella." I urged.

"Okay." He smiled more cheerfully. "Good night Stella, you can call me Wild if you want. That's the nickname I go by at headquarters. I've come to prefer it to Adam."

"I'd like that." I said, grinning back at him. "Good night, Wild."

He paused for a moment and we smiled at each other briefly, then he walked out and shut the door behind him.

"Mental Note:" I began, speaking to myself aloud. "Never ask Wild about his family….EVER…again."

I quickly changed into his shirt and sat down at the edge of the bed. I sighed heavily, feeling awful. I couldn't imagine what it was like to stay the same forever, stuck in time, like a clock that had long stopped ticking, while everyone and everything around you kept moving forward.

I imagined Wild standing in the middle of a crosswalk while people and cars whizzed by at high speeds, as if someone had pressed fast forward. Everyone kept moving, going about their business while Wild stood perfectly still, staring out at me with that eternal sadness in his eyes.

Tears burned at my eyes. I rubbed them, hoping that the irritation would fade quickly. I took deep breaths, willing myself not to cry. I whispered a thanks to god for sending Wild my way, for letting me live and remain a human. I didn't want Wild's life. I never wanted to endure that horrible fate, to have to live forever with that kind of heart ache.

**Wild:**

After seeing Stella to bed, I went into the living room and laid down on the couch. With a heavy sigh I pulled out my wallet and took Lillian's picture out. I held it in my hands and stared at it, studying her features. The picture was faded and torn and the edges. One corner was bent a little bit. Five year old Lillian smiled into the camera. In her arms she held the porcelain faced doll I'd bought for her birthday that year. She wore a frilly white dress and her golden curls peaked out the bottom of her bonnet. Her cheeks were chubby like a cherubs. I was sad that the black and white photo did not show the lively pink of her cheeks or her mint green eyes. She had her mother's eyes. Beth….I closed my eyes and pictured the face of my dead wife. She'd died a broken and feeble woman, half mad with grief, but I chose to picture her as I had seen her the last time we'd been together, back when my eyes were still blue. She was a gorgeous woman, tall but thinly framed. Her thick, chestnut hair fell in waves around her shoulders. Full crimson lips smiled coyly at me, as he brushed out her hair at her vanity mirror. Those mint green eyes were so bright, so adoring, and so …naive. She loved me blindly. She trusted me. She believed in me. And what did I do? I threw it all away. I betrayed her. It was a sin that I would never be given the chance to redeem myself for.

With a groan I threw the picture back in my wallet and slipped it back in my pocket. "Damn." I sighed, cradling my head in my hands. "I need some more coffee."

**Shade:**

I got up from my booth and made my way through the pulsing and gyrating crowd of dancers. I soon found a door that would lead to the back room where Dragon would be waiting, partying with some of his groupies, no doubt. There was a another Brawler standing guard there. This one was a biker looking man with a bandanna around his head and clad all in leather. Again I was asked for a password. So I spoke clearly the words I had committed to memory. "Breath of fire, smoke, and brimstone, serpent's tongue, hide of steel. The Dragon cannot be tamed nor slain." I repeated the words in Latin. "Spiritus of incendia smoke , quod brimstone, serpent's lingua , exuviae of chalybs. extraho cannot exsisto taimed neque nec slain." With a nod the guard opened the door and let me into Dragon's personal suite.

As expected I found him lounging on an expensive looking couch. He was a tall man with long black hair and a goatee bristled across his upper lip and chin. He wore only a pair of jeans and some boots. His top half, he left bare, showing off his lithe muscle and the beautiful tattoo of a European Dragon that wound around his body and rested it's head on his chest. A glass of brandy was clutched in his hand and his left arm was around a gorgeous girl with straight black hair that was cut in an angled bob and smoky black makeup over her crimson eyes. Black lipstick painted her lips. She wore what could be considered Goth attire. A leather corset synched her waist and amplified her breasts. A black, jagged edged skirt came down to mid thigh. Ripped fishnet stockings covered the bare skin and disappeared into the top of high heeled boots. She sat with her legs tucked underneath her and her body pressed snuggly into Dragon's side. The eyed me in an annoyed manner. The energy that poured out of her made goose bumps rise on my arms. She must be Nyx the Bi-Class Vampire, both a Shadow Shifter and a Puppeteer. I had only heard rumors about her before now. It seemed all the horror stories were true. Looking around, it did appear that Dragon kept some very intimidating company. Elementals, Shadow Shifters, Morphers, Puppeteers, Teleporters, Brawlers, Runners, even a couple of Sleepers, and a Bi-Class. He had at least one of each power type in his coven. Well…all except for the rare Angel type.

"Who are you?" Asked Dragon in a thick Eastern European accent. He brushed the lock of long black hair over his right eye away from his face.

"I'm Ezra Shade. I need your help with something." I said with as sturdy a voice as I could muster, trying to appear unaffected.

"You have some pluck coming to me for help, but I can't help you." He smirked and motioned from a blond Runner to come sit with him. She waltzed over in her mini skirt and sat at his other side. Nyx shot her a deadly glare. "Can't you see I'm busy?" He quieted Nyx's growling with a kiss then turned to kiss the blond.

"What if I told you that I were going up against the V.V.P.A?" I offered.

At that Dragon's interest was obviously caught. He smiled cunningly as he rose from the sofa. The two women glared at each other then went their separate ways. The blond went back to her original seat at a poker table and Nyx stood at Dragon's left side. "You have my attention, Shade. However, may I ask why you want to fight the conformists?" He asked, his voice smooth as velvet.

"They took my girl. They're helping her, keeping her from me. I want her back." I replied.

Everyone in the room burst into laughter.

"You're going to raise hell on Dark Haven for a girl? Have you lost your mind?" Dragon chuckled. "Save yourself the trouble and get yourself a new girlfriend, kid."

"No!" I hissed. "It has to be her! I have to have her! And you're going to help me!"

Dragon cocked an eyebrow at me. "You have some nerve demanding things from me, Shadow Shifter. Nyx."

Nyx lifted her black nailed hand and my body went rigid. The higher her arm went, the higher my body lifted into the air. "How dare you be so disrespectful of Dragon?"

"Wait! Dragon! I can make it worth your while!" I stuttered, panic now ringing in my voice.

Dragon crossed his arms over his chest and looked at me with skepticism. "How so? You don't look very rich."

"I don't have money, but if you'll help me, you can do whatever you want with Candy. She works for the V.V.P.A right?"

"Hmmm" He pondered, stroking his beard. "Nyx, let him go."

"But" She protested.

"Do it!" He snarled.

Obediently, but with a bit of hesitation, she lowered her hand and released me from her mind's grip.

"We have a deal?" I asked, breathing heavily from the unnerving predicament I'd just gotten out of.

"I will help you to an extent, but should things go sour, I will not stick around to fall with you. I'll leave you to the dogs, you understand?" He snickered, flashing me his fangs.

"I understand." I nodded.

With things settled, I made my escape from the Dragon's Den. I didn't want to be around Dragon any more than I had to. Being surrounded by his crew made me nervous. As I walked out into the cooling summer night, I couldn't help but grin. With his help, it was only a matter of time before Stella was mine again.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** I'm so sorry about the hiatus. I've been struggling with writer's block, school stuff and other projects. Hopefully this big update will make up for it. Again, I am sorry.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Not Afraid of Hell

**Ezra:**

I staggered down a paved path through a park, gasping and coughing as the sun rose to it's mid day position. I couldn't take much more of this. After spending so much time in my shadow form yesterday, I was too weak to resist the power of the sun. It was making me feel awful. I felt weak and disoriented, like I couldn't get enough breath. My vision was dimming around the edges. Unconsciousness wasn't too far away. Calling upon my last reserve of strength, I urged myself towards the public restrooms building. I could see a pay phone just outside it, right next to some drinking fountains. I moved as quickly as I could and nearly collapsed once I reached the phone. Holding onto the metal enclosure with my other hand to keep me upright, I dialed the number of some old comrades and waited impatiently as the phone ringed in my ear. I never thought that I would ever call this number again after I went out on my own. I wasn't even sure if they would help me.

"Hello?" Answered a smooth feminine voice.

"Christine?" I croaked, breathing heavily.

"Ezra? What's wrong? Why do you sound like that?" She asked.

"Listen. I'm stuck in the park about six miles from your house. I'm too weak to go much further. Can you come pick me up?" I grunted into the phone as a wave a pain rolled through me. This wasn't good. If she didn't hurry I was going to be dead by the time she got here.

"Of course." She said. "But Ezra, what are you doing out there? Why aren't you at your house?"

"The V.V.P.A's after me. My house isn't safe. Please." I rasped. "Hurry. I can't take much more of this. I'll be waiting in the men's bathroom for you."

"Okay, Ezra. Hold tight. I'll be there as soon as I can." She said and hung up the phone.

I dropped the phone and staggered the rest of the way into the men's bathroom, finally falling flat on my face on the dirty tiled floor.

"Ezra? Ezra? Are you alright?" Asked a woman's slightly French accented voice. Christine?

I blinked out of the comforting darkness of unconsciousness to look into the angelic face of a strawberry blond woman, her red eyes wide with worry. "Christine." I breathe her name.

"Thank God!" She sighed, relived that I came back from the brink. She pressed her wrist to my lips and encourages me to taste her flesh. "Drink. You'll feel better."

With a weak hiss, I parted my dry lips and sank my teeth into her flesh. Her skin gave way under my sharp canines and I drew blood. I closed my lips around the wound and lapped at the bites, my saliva going to work to increase the blood flow. As I drank, I looked up at Christine's eyes, watching them become misty with pleasure. I vaguely remembered a time when that expression had fallen over my own face, back when I had tasted Stella's blood for the first time. When I closed my eyes I could still feel her softness under my fingertips, smell the sweat on her skin, and hear her moans of pain and labored breath. Oh god! How I missed her! Those weeks with her was the best time of my life. It was the only time I could remember that I didn't feel the emptiness of loneliness nipping at the back of my mind. Perhaps I had been abusive towards her, but it was the only way I knew how to keep her with me. All the women I had ever been with had always left me or refused me. I loved Stella too much to let her go.

Vampire blood is more potent than humans'. It gives us much more of a boost. Even so, Christine's blood still seemed to turn to ashes in my mouth and I got no pleasure, no release from taking my fill of her. Will I ever be able to slate my thirst? Or will it go on like this forever? Will I always be left unsatisfied without my Stella? What a miserable eternity that would be, to never taste her again. I had to get her back. I had to or I would simply die of starvation. With a groan, I released her and let my head fall back into her lap.

Even though her inadequate blood still left me thirsting, it did give me some energy. Enough at least to stand and stagger back to her car. She drove me back to the town house where she and her master lived together and supported my exhausted body with a arm slung over her neck as she helped me inside. Then she sat me down on the living room couch and bowed her head respectively at the being sitting in the plush chair across from me.

"What is he doing here?" Asked Christine's master in an irritated voice.

"I'm sorry for the intrusion, Marybeth. Ezra is being pursued by the V.V.P.A and he needed a place to rest for a while. He's been in the sun for too long. He was nearly dead when I found him." Christine explained. To many it would be an odd sight, seeing this mature and gorgeous Vampire woman act so submissive towards her master. For you see, her master looked much younger than her. In fact, she was just a child of ten years when she was turned. However, she is more ancient than any other Vampire I have met in the past hundred years or so I have been one myself.

Marybeth was a beautiful little girl. Her red hair was coiled in perfect ringlets. She wore only the most femininely frilly of dresses, making her look even more like a porcelain doll. I watched as her lovely face twisted with anger. Her brows narrowed over her eyes and she hissed at Christine. "Idiot!" At once, Christine's hand suddenly shot up and she struck herself across the face, knocking herself back. "Have you lost your senses?" She demanded, as Christine looked up at her in fear. "The conformists will track him back to us, you fool! Whatever he has done, he deserves what will come to him! Whatever death they deem worthy! It's his own fault!" She bared her fangs at me. "I want him gone, Christine! He made his choice long ago! He deserves no sympathy from me!" With that, she twirled way on her heel and ran up a staircase to her bedroom, slamming the door shut behind her.

Christine groaned as she fell back into the couch beside me. "I'm sorry. I thought she would be more understanding than that. I didn't know she was still this angry at you."

"It's fine." I replied. "I didn't expect her to want to help me. I'll be gone as soon as the sun goes down a little. I just need to get my strength back up."

"What did you do, Ezra?" Asked Christine, nibbling at her bottom lip worriedly. "Why are the conformists after you?"

"I've done nothing wrong." I answered, leaning forward and resting my elbows on my knees. "I simply fell in love with a girl they don't want me to have." I shifted my eyes to her. "Adam Wilder was the one who took her away from me."

Her eyes widened in shock. "Adam?" I watched as her eyes glazed over as she remembered a far away time.

I nodded. Frowning, I ran my hands through my hair in frustration. "I don't know what I'm going to do, but I know I have to get Stella back from him somehow. No other blood will satisfy me now…not even yours, Christine. I have to have Stella…even if it kills me. She's mine." I grit my teeth. "I won't let those hypocrites have her."

"You are certain that it was Adam?" She asked, her eyes still wide.

I nodded. "I'm certain. I've…had a run in with him before."

I watched her as she fumbled around in her jeans' pocket and brought out a crumpled piece of paper. "I…um…looked him up a couple of months ago after I heard that he was living around here, working for the V.V.P.A. I never called him though. I tried a couple of times, but I kept chickening out." She giggled bitterly. "I don't want to hurt him more than I already have. I doubt I'll ever be brave enough to speak to him again." She handed the paper to me. "You might as well take it."

I took it from her and looked at the number. The paper had been folded and unfolded over and over again, it was nearly tearing apart. "Why are you giving me this?" I asked.

"If Adam is in charge of your girl's case then there's a chance that she's been put under his care and is staying with him at his house. It's worth a look at least." She explained.

My lips stretched widely in triumph. I wrapped my arms around Christine and hugged her as tightly as possible. She had no idea how great her simple gift was to me. She'd given me life itself!

"Don't call that number on the house phone, Ezra. She handed me her cell phone out of her pocket. "Use this. It has a blocked number. They won't be able to track it."

"Thank you so much, Christine!." I thanked her and with renewed energy, I rushed into the kitchen to make the call, hoping and praying that she would be the one to answer. Oh, just hearing her voice would send me over the moon. I quickly dialed the number and fidgeted nervously as I listened to the rings.

**Stella:**

I didn't wake up until lunchtime. I sat up and ran my hand through my tangled hair. My cheeks reddened at the realization that I over slept. Wild was going to think I was a bum. I sighed as I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. My eyes drifted over to the photographs on the nightstand. I reached over and picked one of them up. It looked like it had been taken at an office Christmas party. Wild was standing in the back, with his arms crossed over his chest, looking very serious. Skulls was holding Candy bridal style. She was kissing his cheek while she held a bit of mistletoe over his head. Slim was wearing a Santa Clause hat and was standing with his hands in his pockets just behind Skulls. Icy was standing beside Wild, resting a manicured hand on his shoulder. In front of them all, was a handsome man with long blond hair pulled away from his face. There was an eerie inhumanness in his eyes, evident even in the photograph. I had no idea who this man could be. I hadn't met him yet. I sat the photo back down and another caught my eye. It wasn't a photo, but a sketch of a woman done with charcoal. She had a heart shaped face. Cute dimples formed at the corner of her lips. Her eyes were large and bright. Dark hair fell in luxurious waves off the side of her shoulder. Her lips formed a happy, contented smile as she looked over her shoulder at someone. The picture looked as if the artist were viewing the woman from the back. She seemed to be naked, but all that you could see was her bare back. The charcoal lines slowly faded away the further down they went, completely disappearing at the small of her back. My cheeks flushed as I pondered who this woman could be. An old girlfriend maybe? I sat it back down, hurriedly.

There was a knock at the door and Wild peeked his head inside. His short blond hair was disheveled. He hadn't slicked it back yet. He was buttoning up his shirt and the handle of a toothbrush stuck out of his mouth. "Stella, I have to go to the office to take care of some paper work. Will you be okay here for a couple of hours? It shouldn't take me long." He said, his speech a little garbled due to the toothpaste foam in his mouth.

I nodded. "Sure. I'll be okay."

He reached into his pocket and threw me a cell phone. "My number is on speed dial. If you need me to come back, just call me and I'll get here as soon as possible."

"Okay." I said and smiled graciously. He swooped back out and shut the door. I waited for a few minutes and finally heard the front door close. I grabbed my discarded jeans off of the floor and pulled them on beneath the dress shirt I had slept in, before exiting the room. I walked into the kitchen and scoured the cabinets and refrigerator for something edible. Wild really needed to go grocery shopping. He really didn't have much food here. Thankfully, I did find some skim milk and some Cheerios. It's not my favorite cereal, I usually go for something with much more sugar, but it was food and I was starving. I poured me a bowl and sat down at the kitchen counter to devour my humble meal.

I had only taken three bites when the phone hanging on the wall began to ring loudly. I stared at it a moment, debating whether or not I should answer it. I thought it may be an important call for Wild, so I answered it.

"Hello." I said into the phone. "Adam Wilder's Residence."

The person on the other end let out a pleased sigh. "Hey, Stella." He greeted, sending chills down my spine. "Oh, baby, I miss you so much. It's good to hear your voice again."

"E-Ezra?" I squeaked, gasping for breath. My chest suddenly felt very tight.

"You found out my name huh?" He chuckled. "That's fine. I like hearing you say my name. Say it again, baby." He breathed huskily.

"H-How did you get this number?" I demanded, nervously.

"Come now, sweetheart. You didn't think that I'd find out where you are? They can't keep us apart for long. I promise you, I'll come get you soon and take you home." He said, the shier madness of his mind evident in every word.

"No!" I cried, my breathing increasing. Panic was sending me into hyperventilation.

"Okay then, we'll travel world, then. You'd like that, right? You've always wanted to go to Europe. When you were a little girl you used to dream of seeing everything the world had to offer. I can give you that, Stella. I'll take you anywhere you want to go, give you anything you ask for." He whispered almost sweetly. "All I'm asking for in return is that you love me like I love you. That's all."

"Go to Hell you sick freak!" I screamed.

He was quiet for a moment then he replied in a deeper voice. " I've already been there, baby. I'm not afraid of Hell. Protest all you want, but I won't let you deny me, Stella. If you won't give yourself to me willingly. I'll take you by force. I've done it before and I'll do it again, but this time I won't stop at just your blood. I'll take all of you. You're mine, Stella and you always will be. There's no escaping true love. "

There was a click as Ezra hung up the phone, ending the call.

I screamed and grasped at my chest, screaming and wailing as I ran down the hall to the bathroom. I turned on the hot water, letting the steam fill the room. I sat on the toilet and breathed in the steam in an effort to calm my breathing. I took out the phone Ezra had given me and speed dialed him.

"Stella?" He answered.

"He knows!" I screamed into the phone. "He knows where I am! He called the apartment! He's going to get me! Wild! Please! Help me! Please!" I wailed.

"I'm coming!" He assured me. "Stay on the phone, Stella."

He kept me talking until he could get back to the apartment. Then he rushed me back to headquarters.

I sat quietly in Wild's office, breathing in and out of a paper bag while the team scurried around. Candy was sitting beside me, whispering kind, reassuring words. Wild and Skulls were gathered around Slim at the desk, while he clicked away at his computer.

"It's no use." Said Slim finally, the phone he used is blocked. I can't trace it."

"You're sure it was Shade?" Asked Wild, looking over his shoulder at me.

I pulled the bag away from my face. "I'm sure. I'll never forget that voice, so long as I live."

"What should we do?" Skulls asked Wild.

"I don't know." Wild shook his head and touched his pressed lips with his fingers in deep thought. "I wasn't expecting him to find her so quickly."

"I say you should take her to Chief. He'll be sure to have a plan." Said Icy.

With that the team led me through the halls of headquarters and into Chief's office.

The blond man from the photo I had seen earlier was sitting at the desk with his feet propped up on it. "I figured you'd be bringing her to me. I heard what happened." He shifted his eyes from me to Wild. "I'm just as surprised as you are that it only took a couple of days for him to find her. It actually makes me very nervous. I believe that he may not be working alone and that these…friends of his are the ones that helped him find her. I think you know who I'm referring to, Wild They were once friends of yours as well."

Wild's brows knit together. "No." He groaned. "Please, tell me it's not them."

"We've been doing a little research on Ezra Shade. It turns out that he ran with Marybeth and Christine for a few years after you left them in Paris."

"Damn it!" Wild cursed, tugging at his hair in frustration.

"Who is Marybeth and Christine?" I asked Wild.

He didn't reply, so Chief answered for him. "They're Wild's old coven. Christine is Wild's master, the one who turned him."

As Chief explained the connection, Wild's face twisted in anguish.

"Wild, I suggest that you keep Miss Rossi under very close watch. Bring her here when you are working and take her back to your apartment when you are not. You are not to leave her alone under any circumstances. While you are attending to business here, I suggest that she listen in on Slim's fledgling classes. Skulls, I'd like you to teach her some self defense. Oh, and give her a gun. I have a feeling she may need it some day. It's clear that Shade's not going to just forget about her. He'll be sure to come for her and when he does, she needs to be prepared, as do you all."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Learn not to be Helpless

**Stella:**

After the meeting with the Chief, Slim took me right away to join his Fledgling class. Along with monitoring vampire rogues, the V.V.P.A also saw to it that the younger generation understood how to live without having to attack us poor, defenseless, humans. Slim was responsible for teaching the youngsters the way of the conformists.

"Everyone, this is Stella Rossi. She'll be listening in on our classes for a while." He introduced me as we stood in front of the class. The fledgling vampires, both young and old, stared blankly at me, some with the dark, wildly shifting eyes of the fresh turners, and some with the bright red of the mature vampires.

A cute fledgling girl with pigtails and a cowboy hat raised her hand.

"Yes, Cat?" He asked with a charming, all be it geeky, smile.

"What's a human doing taking vampire classes?" She asked with the classic Texan drawl, a pale brow raising over red eyes.

"She's in our protection program. A very dangerous rogue is perusing her and my superiors think that she'll be better prepared to defend herself if she knows more about our kind." He explained, matter-of-factly. My eyes moved around the room at all of the fledglings' faces. The older ones' expressions were docile, distant, almost entirely blank and void of emotion. The younger ones however, wore pinched faces, their teeth gnashed together. They looked as if they were in pain.

Slim touched my shoulder and I jumped in surprise, letting out a frightened yelp. This made several of the fledglings burst out in laughter. The girl in the cowboy hat glared at them. "Shut up." She growled, flashing her teeth at them. The youngsters immediately shut their traps.

Slim pointed to a desk over in the corner, away from the others. "You can have a seat there." I sat down and he gave me several books that were all hand written and filled with hand drawn illustrations. There was a history text and a biology text as well as a few novels. I suppressed the urge to laugh out loud when I saw that "Dracula" by Bram Stoker was one of the required readings.

Slim began his class with some history. He explained that vampires have always existed, since the dawn of man. Where exactly they'd come from was a mystery. In centuries past, the vampires had been hunted mercilessly and the vampires responded by hunting humans with just as much enthusiasm. However, humans greatly outnumbered the vampires and soon their numbers were dwindling in the low hundreds. To stop the genocide of their entire race, the leaders of the vampires struck up a treaty with the human governments, agreeing to conform to certain laws in exchange for their lives.

Law 1: A Vampire must never attack, rape, maim, or kill a human being.

Law 2: A Vampire must not drink human blood unless it is from a consenting donor.

Law 3: A Vampire must not actively hunt or stalk a human being.

Law 4: All new Vampires must register with the respective government of their native country.

Law 5: Vampires can only court and/or marry another of their kind.

Law 6: Not under any circumstances is a Vampire to turn a human being.

Any vampires who are caught breaking one of these rules, are listed as rogues and are either forced into hibernation or executed. So far Shade had broken, or at least attempted to break, almost all of those rules.

We then moved on to Biology. Biologically wise, vampires aren't that different from humans. They still have their human bodies of course, it's just that certain organs and body parts have been altered in the turning. For example, the digestive track changes to allow for the digestion of large amounts of blood. Vampires can still eat other foods, but their bodies can't extract any nutrients from it. It simply passes through their system and their body gains nothing from it, weight included, which I think is a good thing. Their eyes too change, becoming more like cat eyes or those of other nocturnal animals. It is uncertain why the eye color changes to red, though. The shifting eyes of the juvenile fledglings is from the changing process. Changing takes a long time. Sometimes over a year to fully complete. The "shifting phase" as it is called takes two or three months. The whole body goes through this metamorphosis. Muscles become stronger, the spine becomes more flexible, and of course the fangs come in. All of these changes turn weak, omnivorous humans into carnivorous predators, the best killers in the world. However, it comes with a price. The change is understandably painful and most do not survive it. Half of the younger fledglings in the classroom would probably die within the next couple of weeks. Once they were out of the shifting phase and their eyes turned the red shade that the adults sported, they could breathe a little easier. Once they got to that stage, they were pretty much home free.

Aside from the basics, I also learned some helpful tips. There's only a couple of ways to kill a vampire for good, as they have a remarkable ability to heal themselves, even re-grow whole body parts. To put a vampire down for good, you must take off the head or destroy the brain. Then you absolutely must burn the body, even one little finger can regenerate the whole body. This is why executions were usually done by securing the rogue to a stake and then lighting them on fire. It wasn't pretty or painless, but it worked well.

We read a few chapters of Dracula before finally ending the class.

"Have a good afternoon, everyone. Don't forget to stop by the clinic for your check ups before you go home. Oh, and please do the reading! You'll be having a quiz on Monday!" The fledglings let out a huge groan at Slim's announcement.

"Hi." Cat piped as I was stacking the books into a manageable pile. I looked up and saw her trotting up to the desk in her awesome cowboy boots. They were made with weathered leather and they definitely looked like they were used for more practical reasons than fashion.

"Hi." I replied, "Thanks for telling off the others when they laughed at me. That was nice of you."

"No problem. They're all idiots. I swear it's like they've forgotten what it's like to be human and scared shitless." She shook her head with a roll of her eyes. "I'm Katie, by the way, but you can call me Cat. Everyone here does." She said.

"Why do they call you, Cat?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

With that her body began to twist, shrink, and bones started to pop out of place and rearrange themselves. It was a sickening sight, let me tell you. Finally, there sat an orange, long haired, tabby. She almost looked like a normal cat, except that she retained the vampire's red eyes. "This is why." She chirped with her fuzzy cat lips. "I'm a Shape Shifter type vampire. That means that I can take the form of anything I like: animals, people, plants, you name it. I like being a cat the best, though. They're my favorite animal besides horses."

"Do you really have to do that in the classroom?" Asked Slim. He leaned against his desk with a heavy sigh. His eyes remained light with humor and a hint of mischief twisted his lips. "I don't think the Chief will take kindly to one of my students prancing around the place in the nude."

"Sorry Slim." She laughed. "Turn around. I'll change back." He did as he was told and she readjusted her skeleton until she was back in her human form. I was really starting to get worried about my current psychological health. Here I was standing in a classroom with two vampires, I'd just watched one of them contort themselves into a cat, now she was standing in front of me, naked as the day she was born, and none of this really bothered me.

She quickly redressed in her cowgirl attire and started to twist her orange colored hair back into pigtails. "Hey, Stella, right?"

I nodded.

"If you ever need someone to talk to, just come find me. I kind of know what you're going through. I used to be in the protection program myself."

"You were?" I gasped in surprise.

"It didn't turn out all that well, right?" She laughed, but I could see a bit of sadness flicker through her eyes. "They may not have been able to stop what happened to me, but they've taken care of me all this time and they executed the guy who got me. If it weren't for them I'd probably be dead by now. Like I said, if you ever want to just talk, come find me. We can hang out together if you want some company."

I smiled graciously at that. "That would be great. Thank you, Cat."

"No Prob!" She glanced at the clock and started for the door. "I've gotta go! I'm late for my appointment with Candy. I'll see you later, Stella!" She said and skipped out the door.

"She's nice." I said, noticing that Slim was staring at her as she walked away.

He tore his eyes away and frowned at me. "That she is. It's a pity she's here though. She was one of the highest ranked female barrel racers in Texas before she was turned. Now everything she worked so hard for, all her life, is destroyed. It's a real pity."

"What happened to her?" I asked him, a bit hesitant as I watched his features tighten with distress.

His red eyes steeled. "I got the chance to pull the trigger and I didn't take the shot. That's what happened." He growled. He turned away from me and busied himself with a pile of paperwork on his desk.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Drop it! It's none of your business!" He spat at me, his teeth bared fiercely.

"Fine." I squeaked and stepped slowly away from him. I got the feeling that Slim wasn't nearly as in control as he made himself out to be and I wisely decided to get the hell out of there. "Sorry." I said and rushed out of the classroom.

Skulls, Wild's partner, was waiting outside the classroom door and I nearly crashed into his imposing form. "Come with me." He ordered gruffly. I followed him into a gym type room. There were all kinds of exercise equipment and some matting on the floor. The red haired woman, Icy, was there waiting for us. She was dressed in a pair of stretchy shorts and a sports bra, the red waves of her hair pulled up in a ponytail. "I'm going to give you a few self defense pointers. Since I'm a Brawler type and am naturally stronger than normal vampires, I might kill you if I try to fight you myself. That's why I've asked Icy to help me. She'll be your sparring partner. I'll tell you what to do from the sidelines. Got it?" Asked Skulls.

I bobbed my head. _He could kill me by accident?_

"Good. Icy, stand here." He gently took Icy by the arm and dragged her over to the middle of the floor, then had me do the same.

"How long is this going to take? I'd like to go home sometime today." Icy groaned.

"It won't kill you to put in some overtime." Skulls retorted. "Your cats will be fine."

Icy swatted him in the chest. "Shut up!"

Skulls went on with the lesson, completely ignoring her. "Okay, Stella, Icy is going to come at you and I want you to kick her legs out from under her." Without touching her, he showed me how he wanted me to swing my legs around against Icy's legs.

He stepped back to allow me to try my hand at it. Without giving me time to put up my guard, Icy rushed at me at full speed, clothes lining me to the floor. I coughed and gasped, the air having been knocked out of me. "You're going to have to be quicker than that if Shade comes after you again. Vampires like to ambush their prey. He'll grab you when you least expect it. You can't afford to let down your guard. Ever." Said Icy as she circled me. Anger boiling up in me, I spun my legs against the back of her knees as she made her pass around. She fell to the floor, just as Skulls had shown me.

"Good work. Now back to your feet." Skulls barked. Icy and I circled around each other, each eyeing the other up as he continued calling out orders. "Vampires have the same weak points as humans: the eyes, throat, nose, and groin. Get a good jab in those spots and you can at least stun him long enough to run away."

I went to punch Icy in the face, but she caught my blow and flipped me over her shoulder. I landed back on the mat, the air knocked out my lungs once more. "Don't be so obvious!" Skulls yelled from the sidelines. "You have to be sneaky. Go for the move they least expect."

The lesson went on until Candy arrived to tell Skulls it was time to go home. I was black and blue all over and my lungs ached from getting thrown down over and over. I was understandably relieved when Skulls brought the lesson to an end. Icy was in such a rush to leave, she was out the door as soon as Candy appeared.

"Remember all the rules and try to do some practice drills at home, if you can. You'll get better with more practice." Said Skulls.

Candy came up behind him and gave him a peck on the cheek as she wound one arm around his waist. "How'd it go?" She asked. She took me in and gasped in horror. "Honey, are you alright? You look like Skulls used you as a punching bag!" She jabbed Skulls in the side and he gave a fake grunt of pain. "Do you need me to get you a cold compress or something?"

"Nah, I'm good." I sighed, holding my side, where I was sure a nasty bruise was going to be by morning.

"Alright. Well, you can call me any time." She said with a smile. "Wild has me on speed dial."

"We're going to head on home now, but I think Wild's waiting for you in the firing range. We'll take you to him on our way out." Said Skulls.

**Wild:**

I fired off a few practice rounds into the paper target 100 yards away from me. Three shots. One in the head, two in the chest. I popped out the spent cartridge and slid a new one in automatically, my mind on other things. I'd just spoken to Chief. Seems there was a murder down in a safe house called Dragon's Den. It was a new one. I'd never heard of it before. Those things tend to pop up over night sometimes. The girl was a Scarlett Throat, humans with an unhealthy interest in the vampire underworld. None of them really understand the danger they've put themselves in just by entering a safe house. They think that the vampires are humans that are just delving into the occult, that they're pretending. The idea of vampires, immortal beings that remain young throughout time, is understandably seductive. It's been growing in popularity for years and it's led to more deaths than I care to count. We usually get a call like this one at least once a week, if not more. More often than not, vampire related homicides involve Scarlett Throats. However, there was something very worrisome about this one in particular, so much so that the Chief felt it was necessary to inform me personally. The victim looked strikeningly similar to Stella. According to witness reports, the man last seen with her matched Ezra Shade's description. Was it him? Was this Scarlett Throat and Stella connected in some way? I was almost certain they were.

"I'm here." Stella called out as she entered the firing range. I turned towards her as she was waving goodbye to Skulls and Candy.

I handed her the spare gun I'd already prepared for her. I set her up in the booth next to the one I was using and showed her how to use the gun. She fired off two rounds, totally missing the target. "Dang." She huffed.

I stood behind her and eased her arms slightly higher. "Fire between breaths. It'll keep your aim steady." I said, tightening her grip on the gun. I felt her tense slightly. I could hear her heart pounding faster and faster. Guessing that she felt a bit awkward with me standing so close to her, I backed off. She took a breath, held it, and fired, hitting the target all three times along the torso. They weren't kill shots, but they were fairly good for a beginner. "Nice job." I said, taking the gun from her to show her how to load it. As I was working, I decided to ask her about the recent case. "Stella, have you ever been to a safe house?"

She blinked at me in confusion. "What's a safe house?"

"It's sort of a bar for vampires. Humans, which the vampires call Scarlett Throats, are lured there, either by money or an interest in the occult. They allow themselves to be fed on by the vampires there. Have you ever been anywhere like that?"

"No." She shook her head fervently. "Of course not. Why?"

"Do you know anyone who was into that kind of thing? Someone who talked about a place called Dragon's Den?"

At this her face went void. She stared at me blankly, all color draining from her skin.

"Stella, if you know something about this, you need to tell me. It's very important." I pleaded, touching her shoulder reassuringly.

She looked down at the floor, her eyes welling up with tears. "D-do the Scarlett Throats wear red scarves?" She asked, her voice trembling.

"Yes. That's where the nickname comes from. You know about the safe houses?"

"I…my friend Julie…she took me to one once. She made we wear a red scarf. I thought it was just a club. I didn't stay very long. This guy asked Julie and I to come to the back room with him. Julie went, but I didn't like the way the guy was looking at me, so I took off. I think the club was called Dragon's Den." Her eyes lifted to mine and I saw that her pupils had dilated with fear, the tears fell from her eyes in a torrent. "Wild, what is this about? Did going to that place have something to do with what happened to me?"

"I think it might have." I started to hold my tongue, but seeing how upset she already was, I knew I had to tell her the full story. She needed to know how dangerous Shade was to her. "A Scarlett Throat was murdered the night I took you from Shade's house. She looked a lot like you."

"You think it's Shade?" She asked, her brows angling over her eyes.

"I have little doubt." I said truthfully. "Listen to me, obviously Shade's obsessed with you. If he's going as far as killing anyone who looks like you, then there's no way he's going to stop on his own. He'll do whatever it takes to get to you. He'll go after your parents, your brother, and your friends. If Julie is still mixed up in the world of the Scarlett Throats, then she's the easiest target."

**Shade:**

After Marybeth kicked me out, Christine got me a room at a local motel. It was cheap. The carpet was dingy and the bedding had stains on them whose identity I'd rather not know. Vampire senses can be a pain at times.

I waited until nightfall, then went out on the town. I had some new prey to track down. Dragon's Den was being swarmed by police. They'd found that Scarlett Throat I killed a few days ago. I could see the human cops whisking in and out of the old building. Among them I spotted one of the V.V.P.A, the red head. She was talking to a detective, tossing her hair flirtatiously and entrancing him with her eyes to get out all the needed information. I ducked into another ally to find a way around the crime scene tape, where they wouldn't spot me. Dragon's Den was my prey's usual hang out, but I knew of a few other places where she liked to go. One was called Ark. It wasn't too far away, just outside of Dragon's territory.

I told the Brawler outside the password and he let me inside without any trouble. Ark was more…upscale than Dragon's Den, more like a popular night club than a sleazy bar. The place was swarming with Scarlett Throats, everywhere you looked you saw flashes of red. I sat at the bar and discreetly scanned the room. I watched the Scarlett Throats from beneath my hood as they danced on the dance floor, their hips gyrating to the low pulse of the music. The room was dark, save for the multicolored lights that spun over their twisting bodies, lighting their faces in crimson, violet, and sapphire. I could see that others were watching them carefully as well, picking out the ones that best suited their taste. In the short time I was there, I watched as several vampires made their choices. They always approached in the same way: charming smile, seductive eyes, the women swaying their hips alluringly and the men walking with a confident swagger.

I eyed each of the Scarlett Throat girls, looking for one in particular. Finally, I found her, entering the club alone. She wore a corset top and a miniskirt that left little to the imagination. I swallowed the bile that rose in my throat at the prospect of having to seduce this whorish girl. I'd had enough of her kind in my human life, being the son of a whore myself and being raised in a brothel. Girls like the one in my crosshairs reminded me far too much of those days. I hated them. Them, I killed for the sake of vengeance. Girls like Stella, who were pure and good, uncorrupted, I killed for pleasure. Stella was the pinnacle. My sweet, sweet Stella. She, I would keep and the endless pleasure that I sought would finally be mine as well.

My eyes followed the whore as she sashayed over the dance floor, her hips swaying far too much. She started to dance provocatively with some other Scarlett Throat girls. She giggled and tossed her hair flirtatiously. I felt my blood begin to boil. I tasted copper, my teeth having dug into my bottom lip. I slid off of my bar stool, my muscles bunched and filled with power, a leopard ready to strike from the shadows. I rolled my shoulders to ease the tension and switched on the lure.

"Hello, beautiful." I whispered huskily into the whore's ear as I eased up behind her. I put my hands on her hips and held her against me, our hips swaying together with the beat. She giggled sickeningly sweetly and twisted in my arms so that her chest was pressed up against mine. "What's your name, cutie?" She asked, batting her fake eyelashes.

I smiled a charmingly lopsided grin, a friendly sparkle in my eyes. "Ezra Shade. You're Julie, right?"

Her glossy lips shaped into an "o" in her surprise. "How'd you guess? Do you know me?" She asked.

"Sort of." I began. My grin widened and I could tell by the slight dilation of her pupils that fear was starting to ease into her core. My grip on her hips tightened. "I'm a friend of Stella's."

* * *

**Author's Note:** I just want to thank all my reviewers for continually encouraging me to continue this story. I apologize for the long wait. This chapter was difficult to write for some reason.


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